Label Spotlight

SLAM Productions
By Ken Waxman

Serendipity not strategy led to the birth of the British label SLAM 23 years ago, which since that time, from its base in Abingdon, six miles south of Oxford, has grown to a catalogue of almost 160 releases from European, South and North American improvisers.

SLAM simply came about when journeyman multi-reedist George Haslam, who at 50 had played with everyone from ‘30s dance band trumpeter Nat Gonella to free music trombonist Paul Rutherford decided he wanted to release a disc of solo baritone saxophone improvisations. “I made a couple of LPs on Spotlite with my group, but I wanted to make a solo improvised recording and I knew this would not fit with Spotlite whose beginnings had been with Charlie Parker,” he recalls. “I spoke to Eddie Prevost [who runs the Matchless label] and others, coming to the conclusion that the best way to do this and have complete control, was to do it myself. Eddie advised me to do a CD, not an LP – which, in 1989, was excellent advice. In the event I recorded an album of solos and duos with Paul Rutherford called 1989 - and all that”.

The only idea was preserving his own work, he adds. “I had no intention of creating a new CD label. I played a concert in Oxford with [soprano saxophonist] Lol Coxhill, Paul Rutherford and [pianist] Howard Riley; Michael Gerzon made a beautiful recording and so I made the CD The Holywell Concert [1990]. Sometime later, Howard [Riley] approached me with a great recording by the quartet he co-led with [alto saxophonist] Elton Dean, asking if I would like to put it out ‘on your label’. I agreed and that was when the label was established.”

A one-man outfit, with Haslam preferring the title “sole proprietor”, SLAM soon grew exponentially as other musicians began offering him sessions to release. Not liking the clichéd “001”, his first CD was numbered “301” with a different numbering system needed for other release. UK musicians’ discs come out on the 200 series; the 400 series is for compilations; and 500 for non-UK artists. “One or two have slipped in the wrong series, purely by mistake,” he jokes.

Certainly there have been many CDs to deal with in nearly a quarter-century, during which Haslam has “built great working relations with studios, design artists, photographers, pressing and printing plants and legal advisors”. SLAM’s first non-British releases date from 1992 when Haslam was arranging a jazz festival in Oxford. Admiring the work soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, with whom he had previously played, had done with pianist Mal Waldron, he invited them to the festival. The recorded concert became Let’s Call This … Estee. Interestingly enough this was Haslam’s first meeting with Waldron, with whom he would record Waldron-Haslam in 1994, which remains one of the label’s best-selling discs.

Always a world traveler –Haslam often plays in Eastern Europe and South America, in the mid-‘90s SLAM gradually began putting out discs featuring the saxman with local players.

“Since around 2005, he elaborates, “I’ve been contacted by musicians from many different countries – always unsolicited and quite out of the blue. Where appropriate I have tried to present their music. I guess they see SLAM as active in the same area of music as themselves.”

One improviser who does is Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser, whose Solo Bone CD appeared on SLAM in 2008 and who is to record a new solo trombone album for the label at the end 2012. “Solo Bone was actually my very first solo concert I gave in Switzerland. It was recorded by Swiss radio and the results turned out so well that I decided to release it. I started shopping it around, but few labels were interested.One reason was due to the difficulties to sell such a challenging product. Unfortunately few people have an interest in listening to a trombone by itself. However, George automatically showed interest and asked me to send the recording. I heard back from him a couple of weeks after that telling me he loved it and that he wanted to put it out. I am really thankful George decided to release Solo Bone and even more happy to work with him on the following one. I guess George takes some risks to release this music. It’s challenging to put out free jazz music in today's market. Fortunately we still have people like George who continuously support our community.”

All discs that appear on SLAM in what Haslam calls a “joint venture” arrangement. Although he self-finances he own releases, other avenues such as recording grants available from the Arts Council of England were discontinued years ago. “Musicians need to find a level of funding which I put towards the costs of printing, pressing, licensing etc. The musicians’ financial input is expected to be returned through gig sales and royalties. I see SLAM sitting somewhere between a ‘self release’ and a signed up contracted operation. The musicians have complete control over the music, artwork etc., but hopefully benefit from being on an established label.”

Besides Haslam, who has appeared on about 40 of the imprint’s releases, SLAM’s the musician who has appeared on the most SLAM CDS is tenor saxophonist Paul Dunmall. “I knew George in the late ‘70s early ‘80s before he set up SLAM records when I played every Sunday night at the old fire station in Oxford,” recalls Dunmall. “George said he was going to start a label and when I recorded the double CD in 1993 that became Quartet, Sextet and Trio

I asked if he would be interested in releasing it. He agreed, and basically we have had a very good working relationship since then. Now sometimes I have a recording and think it would be perfect on SLAM. I don't remember him ever turning anything down that I have offered him. He does a very thorough job and really makes a lot of effort to get releases known in the press etc. Also he makes the business side of things very clear and he is a very honest man. He has a very open policy with his ideas of the music that will work on his label. It's not just improvised music, there's a huge variety of styles although of course it is jazz based somewhere along the line. SLAM really has had a huge impact on the improvised/jazz music scene especially here in the UK. You only have to look at his vast catalogue to see what a great job he has done.”

Dunmall, who started his CDR-only DUNS Limited label in 2000, says he did so to have discs to sell at gigs. “To release a CD back then was quite expensive, so I could probably just do one CD for SLAM a year if I was lucky, but with DUNS I could put out one CDR a month. But I think it was also important to have music released on established labels like SLAM. I hope the label keeps going for years to come. It will be tough, but George is a determined guy.”

Overall SLAM releases about six or seven CDs a year, with sales ranging from those which don’t reach three figures to those which sell about 1,000 copies or so. Besides Waldron- Haslam, the label’s other best sellers are Explorations … to the Mth Degree, a duet by drummer Max Roach and Waldron; and The Vortex Tapes, recorded at that London club by Dean in group featuring among others, bassist Paul Rogers, drummer Tony Levin and trombonist Rutherford.

Due to Prévost’s prescient advice there were never any SLAM LPs issued, although there were cassettes. “Last year I looked at producing an LP”, he reveals. “But the costs were quite high. I’d like to do it, apart from anything else the scope for artwork on a 12-inch sleeve is appealing,” he says. Digital downloads of 11 out-of-stock CDs can be ordered through iTunes, Amazon.co.uk and eMusic. As well, The Middle Half by the Esmond Selwyn Hammond Organ Trio is only for sale digitally. “Esmond’s first SLAM CD, Take That, sold out completely; his second The Axe, a collection of jazz standards on solo guitar, sold very few, in spite of rave reviews around the world. Esmond sells them by the dozen on his gigs,” te saxophonist explains. “When he came along with The Middle Half I discussed this with him. He wanted to stay with the label so we went for the digital release with limited quantity pressed for promotion and gig sales. It’s an experiment, but it’s too early to judge results, sales figures take months to trickle through.”

Among the sessions scheduled for release is what Haslam calls “a great new CD by Paul Dunmall playing Coltrane compositions. We sometimes take the masters too much for granted and it is good to be reminded of their contribution to the music.”

He adds: “When a recording is offered to me for release on SLAM, I listen to it and consider is SLAM the right place for it? I don’t have a style template to which the music must fit. There is a wide range of music on the label and the SLAM slogan has always been Freedom of Music. I remember many years ago playing a concert with Lol Coxhill; at one point he was asked to play a solo piece, He said he was going to play ‘Autumn Leaves’. ‘But this is a ‘free’ gig, Lol’ someone said. ‘So,’ said Lol ‘Am I free to play what I want?’ What ties the catalogue together, I hope, is the objective of a) preserving music which may otherwise be lost and b) making this music available to a listening public. To try to ‘educate’ or lead a public would be counterproductive but the music is there to be discovered.”

--For New York City Jazz Record August 2012

August 6, 2012

Dreamtime

Double Trouble
Reel Recordings RR018/019/020

Unbeknownst to most Jazz fans the musical influence of the South African Blue Notes combo and Brotherhood of Breath (BOB) big band extended much further into Jazz’s lingua franca than evidenced by the groups subsequently led by the original expatriates. Part of the appeal of Dreamtime, for instance, founded in 1981 by three Englishmen and two London-domiciled expatriates – one Italian and one American – is the many of the themes pulse with that mixture of Townships and experimental sounds which characterized the BOB.

At the same time Dreamtime was a dream project for improvisers because of the consistency of musicianship among the band members, as these three examples of their work indicate. Disc One from a 1984 Jazz Festival features the initial line-up of trombonist and chief composer Welshman Nick Evans; Brooklynite-turned-Londoner Jim Dvorak on pocket trumpet; Italian bassist Roberto Bellatalla plus Britons drummer Jim Lebaigue and alto saxophonist Gary Curson. All except for the drummer worked with different South African ensembles, with all the horn players in BOB, and Evans in one Soft Machine line-up that also featured alto saxophonist Elton Dean, who apparently worked with every one of the players at times. That’s the reason why the final disc, featuring the original band augmented by pianist Keith Tippett, a sometime Dreamtime member, is particularly affecting. It’s a DVD of the sextet playing at an Elton Dean Memorial in 2006. In contrast, the club date from 1991, which is Disc Two, could be termed Double Dreamtime. Here the original five members are joined by a homologue on the same instrument: trumpeter Kevin Davy; trombonist Paul Rutherford; saxophonist Paul Dunmall; bassist Marcio Mattos and drummer Mark Sanders; each of whom has extensive experience in British groups on their own or alongside different members of Dreamtime.

Including compositions by other BOB members like trombonist Radu Malfatti and bassist Harry Miller plus a group improv titled “Bushman’s Dance”, the quasi-South African inflections are strongest on CD1. The most common motif is a hard-hitting groove built on call-and response vamps that usually involve plunger work from Evans, smears from Curson and brassy insouciance from Dvorak. A piece such as “Duos/Dalbe 345”, composed by Malfatti, who long ago abandoned this style for microtonalism, has a head that could have been written for a South African band, and leaves enough space for individual expression. By the finale drum rolls evolve into parade-ground raps from Lebaigue with earlier variants based around a clean trumpet lead, widely vibrated double-tongued fluttering from the saxophonist and Evans’ guffawing glissandi. On the piece, Bellatalla’s brisk finger-styled line is the connection. This skill is showcased even more on “Traumatic Experience” and “Careful Driver”. The former is a semi-swing tune with Evans maintaining the moderato link between sectional polyrhythm from the bass and drum and staccatissimo heraldic trumpet and top-of-range sax lines. More of a Bellatalla showcase, the latter has a repeated bass line which expands into swift arpeggio runs with hesitant asides. Meanwhile strident peeps and squeaks keep the stop-time exposition linear.

Seven years later at a London club, the doubled personnel demonstrates pleasing multiphonics at points; but with two drummers and six horns elsewhere move Dreamtime’s harmonies closer to the swollen brassiness of groups such as Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago. Luckily High Life influences mated with some Iberian tarantella suggestions and solos in the Albert Ayler tradition prevent the group from losing itself in Pop-Jazz.

While other tunes may highlight gutbucket brass cries, hocketing reed slurs plus contrapuntal rhythmic shakes, two of the bassist’s compositions are more indicative of the magnified band’s style. Working off Dunmall’s pedal point smears and triplet laden brays from Dvorak and Davy, “Call the Devil” is expressed in polyrhythms and polyharmonies until the main Mediterranean-styled theme appears midway through. Fiesta-like brassy, yet moving from chromatic to broken octave, the accompaniment is characterized by a walking bass line, strokes and bounces from the dual drum sets and tremolo trumpeting. The final variant downshifts to a splintered tenor saxophone solo and door-knocking percussion work soaring beside a pile up of irregular grace notes from the other horns, and ends with Afro-Cuban vocal “umphs”.

Stop-and-go, contrapuntal and dyspeptic, “And So Tibet” moves from stacked altissimo reed ejaculations and anvil-like percussion wallops to an overture of tutti slides plus whinnies that scatter colors and rhythms every which way. Redirected towards an Aylerian parade-ground-like routine by bugling from one trumpeter, the rhythm undulates enough to open up more space for Dvorak’s pocket trumpet triplets which lead the other horns upwards into skyscraper tones. The finale features the high-pitched brass screeching on top of thumping bass lines and gradually fading with marching-band-like echoes.

As for the DVD, captured more than 15 years after the initial session, it’s more akin to a bagatelle or a visual souvenir than a major statement. In truth the lachrymose performance by the Dreamtime quintet and Tippett may be more valued by completists who wish to be caught up in the poignant moment. For others the two audio discs are preferable. They exhibit music from a group of improvisers who, while never reaching first rank, produce (d) high-class work nonetheless.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: CD1: 1. Trunk Call 2. Tip of the Iceberg 3. Careful Driver 4. Duos/Dalbe 345 5. Bushman’s Dance 6. Traumatic Experience CD2: 1. Sierra Maestra 2. Loopin’ 3. Frogs 4. Call the Devil. DVD: 1. Abide With Me 2. Trunk Call 3. Call the Devil 4. And So Tibet

Personnel: Jim Dvorak (pocket trumpet and voice); Nick Evans (trombone); Gary Curson (alto saxophone); Roberto Bellatalla (bass) and Jim Lebaigue (drums) plus on CD2: Kevin Davy (trumpet); Paul Rutherford (trombone); Paul Dunmall (tenor and baritone saxophones); Marcio Mattos (bass) and Mark Sanders (drums) plus on DVD: Keith Tippett (piano)

August 16, 2011

Mark Anderson/ Paul Dunmall/Philip Gibbs/Tony Hymas

21st Century V-Bop
SLAM CD 284

Uli Kempendorff Quartet

Louise

Jazzhaus Musik JHM 189

Quartet combinations with saxophone, guitar and drums often negotiate the boundaries separating Jazz-Rock and Jazz-Improv. The German and British ensembles featured here negotiate opposite sides of the divide precisely because of each combo’s fourth member. With resilient pressures from Marc Muellbauer’s double bass, the band of reedist Uli Kempendorff, drummer Kay Lübke and guitarist Ronny Graupe works in Jazz-Improv conception. Meanwhile the intricate, somewhat spacey lines from Tony Hymas’ keyboards encourage Jazz-Rock invention from saxophonist Paul Dunmall, guitarist Philip Gibbs and drummer Mark Anderson.

There’s some irony implicit in these session designations, though. In other situations, often with Gibbs affiliated, Dunmall plays fiery Free Jazz. Meanwhile Graupe’s most frequent gig is with the Berlin-based Hyperactive Kid trio, which is as apt to call on Rock rhythms as Jazz elaborations.

Kempendorff, Louise’s leader, is another Berliner whose experience ranges from theatre, film and cabaret – the last with Canadian Aboriginal playwright/pianist Tomson Highway – teaching music, plus gigs with likes of pianist Ulrich Gumpert Workshop band. His academic and theatrical background is put in bold relief during his woody, near-Klezmer clarinet extensions on this CD’s “Rosen”, adapted from a composition by East German Hanns Eisler. As the clarinetist flutter-tongues, he’s backed by the guitarist’s robust, near-flamenco strums; cymbal resonation from Lübke, who has recorded with saxophonist Silke Eberhard; plus cross string scrawls, wooden body patting and below-the-bridge scratches from the bassist who both teaches at the Hanns Eisler music school and leads his own nine-piece Kaleidoscope band. On the other hand, “Ringelreih” features Kempendorff’s flutter-tongued a capella exposition on tenor saxophone before the stop-time theme kicks in. Spurred by plucked bass lines and the drummer’s pops and rebounds, the saxophonist spins out lightly accented timbres which keep his solo linear even as he adds snorts and higher-pitched double tonguing.

Overall, the saxophonist’s presentation of his compositions can sound either straight-ahead or funky. The first occurs when Lübke frequently pounds his snares and smashes his cymbals as if he was Shelly Manne at a West Coast Jazz date; the latter is exposed on “Gruß an Die Aiebzinger”, where Lübke’s shuffle beat bridges slippery string pumps from Graupe and swiftly vibrating legato sax lines from Kempendorff. Overall, the most affecting aural memory from the disc is the interplay between the saxophonist and the guitarist. To wit: flutter tonguing, twisting slurs and staccato trills on the saxophonist’s part are met by the guitar’s contrapuntal picking, skittering and mirrored note clusters or sprayed timbre decorations.

Similarly Gibbs’ and Dunmall’s pronounced guitar-saxophone intersection has been developed over many performances and just as many CDs recorded since before the beginning of the 21st Century. Self-taught, the Bristol-based guitarist also plays solo and with the cream of Improv players ranging from pianist Keith Tippett to drummer Hamid Drake. Meanwhile Hymas’ most high profile corresponding gigs have been with the likes of guitarist Jeff Beck and electric bassist Stanley Clarke as well as playing and composing notated music. One of a group of percussionists with homonymous or the same name, Anderson is a journeymen who has worked on both the Rock and Jazz side of the fence.

The latter two’s background may what pushes 21st Century V-Bop towards Rock, although the four are accomplished enough to eschew Pop Fusion and keep the communication lines open with free-form Improv. Dunmall in particular though, plays more linear and melodic lines than usual, especially on soprano saxophone, whose clear glissandi are the defining feature of most Fusion dates. Here, at least, when his timbres appear uncharacteristically chromatic, Gibbs is on hand to push him out of the comfort zone with resonating licks and swelling reverb. Equally pressurized knob-twisting distortions and wah-wah pedal strain from Gibbs sometimes presage additional coloration from Hymas’ church music-like keyboard chording and Anderson’s repetitive beats and clattering clunks.

Still, an inordinate number of faded endings on the CD suggest that despite the quartet’s talents, satisfying conclusions were lacking once everyone expressed his musical thoughts. Paced cadences and crescendos plus internal soundboard-clunks from the pianist; shattering cymbal breaks and paced ruffs from the drummer; and even the guitarist’s methodological and contrapuntal licks, including flanges and claw-hammer string pounding, don’t give enough shape to the proceeding.

Tellingly the most accomplished of these group instant compositions is the final one which is almost the lengthiest. Following some initial verbal mumbles and cries, “A Knight on the Tiles” takes off in a flurry of squealing reed bites, cross-handed snare pops, staccato electric piano comping and finger-picked string slides and slurs. As the keyboardist cascades high-frequency note flurries, his narrative evolves into double counterpoint, with Gibbs’ knob-twisting and slurred fingering in full pursuit. Intensifying his response, the keyboardist brings foot pedal pressure into play as he key clips and slaps. Heading for a resolution, Dunmall begins a sinuous soprano saxophone exposition with powerful double tonguing and an expansive vibrato. Eventually heavily syncopated guitar strumming and two-handed keyboard runs join the long-lined sax lines to complete the musical thoughts.

Similarly constituted in personnel, but completely different sounding CDs, both discs provide ample showcase for the band members’ multi-talents. On reflection, though, it appears that sonic cooperation is more obvious – and satisfying – on the German than the British session.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Louise: 1. Surcharge 2. Stuck 3. Rosen 4. Gruß an Die Aiebzinger 5. Can’t Read Your Signal 6. Aprilwetter 7. Ringelreih 8. Arresterd Development 9. Falenreich

Personnel: Louise: Uli Kempendorff (tenor saxophone and clarinet); Ronny Graupe (guitar); Marc Muellbauer (bass) and Kay Lübke (drums)

Track Listing: V-Bop: 1. The Path of Nonevitability 2. The Front 3. John’s Intelligent Ears 4. Once More into No-thing 5. Mad Dash for the Exit 6. Preyer 7. A Knight on the Tiles

Personnel: V-Bop: Paul Dunmall (tenor and soprano saxophones); Philip Gibbs (guitar); Tony Hymas (keyboards) and Mark Anderson (drums)

July 22, 2011

Van Hove/Dunmall/Rogers/Lytton

Asynchronous
SLAM CD 283

By Ken Waxman

An enviable instance of a so-called supergroup of European improvisers clicking in a festival setting, Asynchronous demonstrates what can be done in the familiar saxophone and rhythm section setting. It helps that each participant is a veteran, comfortable in many improv situations. Paul Dunmall, who plays tenor saxophone and border pipes here and 7-string bassist Paul Rogers are one-half of the cooperative British quartet Mujician, as well as leading their own bands. Antwerp-based pianist Fred Van Hove has been defining a Flemish variant on Free Jazz since before his participation in 1968’s Machine Gun; and Belgium-based, English-born drummer Paul Lytton is equally adaptable, having spent four decades time collaborating with stylists ranging from British saxophonist Evan Parker to American trumpeter Nate Wooley.

Proof of this cooperation is dazzlingly apparent during the CD’s almost 47-minute title track. As Dunmall spits out reed bites and split tones with his considerable body weight behind them, Van Hove counters with churning chording and equally kinetic runs. As the saxman’s glissandi become progressively glottal and atonal, the pianist reaches inside his instrument to animate the tightly wound strings with stops, strums and pops. Rogers’ thick pressure on the bass’s multiplied strings plus Lytton’s skittering drags and rebounds mostly hold the rhythm no matter how often the saxophonist’s timbres move from nephritic to altissimo. With the only momentarily release from the staccato, cascading sound textures, those few instances when Lytton strikes a small bell with a wire brush, the fortissimo and polyphonic performance ends as intensely as it began. Van Hove continues outputting pile-driver chords from; Lytton ruffs and press rolls; Rogers’ sul tasto slides; and, nearly engulfing then other tones, Dunmall’s staccato tongue slaps and multiphonic intensity.

Nevertheless the skills displayed are such, that four-part connectivity is never lost, making the date a tribute to both individual talents and group interaction.

Tracks: Asynchronous; Moves

Personnel: Asynchronous: Paul Dunmall: tenor saxophone and border pipes; Fred Van Hove: piano; Paul Rogers: 7-string bass; Paul Lytton: drums

--For New York City Jazz Record July 2011

July 7, 2011

David Sait

Sixty Interpretations of Sixty Seconds by Sixty Solo Improvisers
Apprise Records AP-04

As much a triumph of organization and timbral arrangement as music, this matchless CD is the result of a unique initiative by Toronto-based guzheng player David Sait. During 2009 and 2010 he solicited and collected original 60-second recordings from 60 improvisers he had played with or admired in the past, then knit the results into 10 separate tracks, each of which encompasses improvisations from six of the participants.

Considering that anyone hearing the results wouldn’t realize that each 60-second cut was recorded independently of the others, the suturing is almost faultless. Bearing in mind that contributions came from Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Japan, Spain, Australia, Ukraine, France, Belarus, Finland, Austria, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, Serbia, Ireland and Italy, the idea that cerebral improvising is universal suggests itself as well.

To take one example, on “9”, the captured voices and textures processed from Ben Roberts’ altered turntables and cassettes in Spain, crackle in such a way that the linkage with Briton Helen Gough’s field recording is palpable. Then the distanced puffs and mouth kisses that characterize Argentinean trumpeter Leonel Kaplan`s improvisation segue into the old-time country music strokes from Canadian Gerry McGoldrick’s shamisen, bleeding into Ronny Kipper’s church organ fanfares in the U.K., and conclude with the pseudo cool and groovy rhythmic pulses created by the whistling and keyboard of Italy’s Alessando Alessandroni.

Premeditation did however go into the selection of tracks and musicians for each section by Sait. The string player, who has developed unique tunings for his guzheng, has in the past performed or recorded with among others, American percussionist Gino Robair – featured on this CD – British bassoonist Mick Beck and American guitarist Eugene Chadbourne – who aren’t. Initially contacting improvisers in batches, he analyzed the sounds that arrived, and, to ensure that the one style or instrumental family wasn’t over-represented, then decided on which other players to approach and include.

Catholic in final execution, so-called ethnic instruments such as Ukrainian tsymbaly and Greek oud share space with more conventional sound makers such as guitars, pianos and saxophones. Unusual juxtapositions illuminate the various tracks in addition, as when the pressurized breaths of American alto saxophonist Joe McPhee abut the kinetic, near-boogie-woogie tinkles of Canadian pianist Michael Snow; or when the decidedly primitive clicks of Ireland’s Rob Coppard’s dedicated bones segue right into the modernist, but still non-tonal scrapes and bumps from Sweden’s Johannes Bergmark’s platform; with both textures fluently complemented by the slide guitar styling of the U.K.’s Philip Gibbs. Sait himself has only one 60-second solo, his multi-stringed plucks and resonations positioned between American Susan Alcorn’s pedal steel guitar twangs and the accordion-like pulsing of Pekko Käppi’s jouhikko from Finland.

This experiment may or may not be repeatable. But it certainly supplies novel and notable listening material with this CD.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. 1, 11, 111, 1111, 11111, 111111 2. 2, 22, 222, 2222, 22222, 222222 3. 3, 33, 333, 3333, 33333, 333333, 4. 4, 44, 444, 4444, 44444, 4444444 5. 5. 5. 55, 555, 5555, 55555, 555555 6. 6, 66, 666, 6666, 66666, 666666 7. 7, 77, 777, 7777, 77777, 777777 8. 8. 88. 888, 8888, 888888, 888888 9. 9, 99, 999, 9999, 99999, 999999 10. 10, 1010, 101010, 10101010, 1010101010, 101010101010

Personnel: 1. Linsey Pollak (rubber glove bagpipes); 11. Chas Smith (copper box); 111. Rachel Arnold (cello); 1111 Fatima Miranda (voice and field recordings); Todd Taylor (banjo) 2. Yurko Rafaliuk (tsymbaly); 22. Jeff Albert (trombone); 222. Laure Chailloux (diatonic accordion) 2222. Leon Gruenbaum (samchillian) 22222. Leanid Narushevich (guitar); 22222, Araz Salek (tar) 3. John Oswald (alto saxophone); 33. Christine Sehnaoui (alto saxophone); 333. Susan Alcorn (pedal steel guitar); 3333. David Sait (guzheng); 33333. Pekko Käppi (jouhikko); 333333. Andrea Centazzo (gong) 4. Misha Marks (prepared guitar); 44. Joana Sá (piano); 444. Martin Grütter (piano); 4444. Paul Dunmall (soprano saxophone); 44444. Joe Sorbara (drums and percussion); 444444. Kyle Bruckmann (oboe) 5. Damon Smith (field recordings, 7-string double bass and laptop) 55. Lawrence Casserley (monoharp, breath and signal processor) 555. John Butcher (soprano saxophone controlled feedback and piano resonator); 5555. Tom Boram (analog modular synthesizer); 55555. Ignatz (guitar, voice and drum); 555555. Helena Espvall (cello and effects) 6. Tim Hodgkinson (clarinet); 66. Beatrix Ward-Fernandez (theramin); 666. Christian Munthe (acoustic guitar); 6666. Mia Zabelka (violin and effects) 66666. Rayna Gellert (fiddle); 666666. Tobias Tinker (harpsichord) 7. Periklis Tsoukalas (oud); 77. Michael Keith (ukulele); 777. Szilárd Mezei (viola); 7777. Gino Robair (metal, glass, plastic, stone and motors); 77777 Joe McPhee (alto saxophone and voice); 777777 Michael Snow (piano) 8. Rob Coppard (bones) 88. Johannes Bergmark (platform ); 88. Philip Gibbs (slide guitar); 888. Aaron Ximm (field recording with broken radio); 88888. Philo Lenglet (prepared acoustic guitar) 888888. Carmel Raz (violin) 9. Ben Roberts (turntables and cassette decks) 99. Helena Gough (field recording); 999. Leonel Kaplan (trumpet) 9999. Gerry McGoldrick (shamisen); 99999. Ronny Krippner (church organ); 999999. Alessandro Alessandroni (keyboard and whistling) 10. Olivia De Prato (violin); 1010. Heribert Friedl (chair); 101010. Robin Hayward (microtonal tuba); 10101010. Bruno Duplant (bass); 1010101010. Mike Smith (hurdy gurdy); 101010101010. Paulo Chagas (oboe)

January 28, 2011

Trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher

Quartet
BBBCD 12 & 13

How can a trio be a quartet? That Dadaist query is more serious than is initially evident. For adding another musician to a long-established triangular entity, doesn’t necessarily result in a quartet sound if the thought processes don’t mesh. However Trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher here craftily avoids the phenomenon of merely creating music for three plus one. Using pieces from pianist Michel Braam’s “Q Book” as a basis, the three integrate guests’ sounds into their longstanding connection.

With six guests, of course, some of the quartet – and truth in packaging alert, one quintet – tracks work better than the others, depending on the tempo and intensity of the interaction. Interestingly enough, a divide affects two members of the trio as well. When the extra participants’ improvising burrow deep into rough and ragged atonalism, the scrubs, swabs and pulses created by veteran bassist Wilbert de Joode predominate. But when the interaction calls for more cohesive and harmonic patterning, the piano’s traditional role prevails, as Braam literally plays along. Drummer Michael Vatcher sticks to his accompanist role in either case.

American-in-Amsterdam saxophonist/clarinetist Michael Moore is the most frequent guest here, with four appearances. A couple seem little more than capriccios, with the reedist’s coloratura obbligatos and melodic trilling answered by low-frequency chording from the pianist, unhurried bowed bass lines and subtle drags from the drummer. Although there are glimpses of splayed reed bites from Moore and even some string scrubbing from de Joode at those times, other narratives are more expansive.

“Q14” for instance, while appearing to be built on a maddeningly familiar yet unspecified melody the performance is tauter and more abrasive. Perhaps it’s because Moore introduces a yearning alto saxophone line which is met by metronomic piano pulsing, displaying substitute chords to modify the saxophonist’s diatonic squeaks and flutters. More impressive still is “Q23”, which highlights genuine four-person blending. Outputting a fluid, almost Benny Goodmanish tone, Moore comfortably trades fours with Vatcher’s flams and pops, de Joode’s thumps and plucks and Braam’s kinetic runs. The double-counterpoint finale is constructed out of reed trilling and bass slaps.

LOOS mainman, tenor and soprano saxophonist Peter van Bergen brings out a completely different side of the trio in his chapters of the Q book. When he widen the vibrato of his thin tone to volley atonal cries on “Q01”, the pianist methodically strums piano keys and pedal pumps, leaving enough space for the bassist’s sul tasto and col legno pitch-sliding. “Q03”, with van Bergen displaying soprano split tones and glossolalia, first draws out staccato voicing from Braam, then settles the entire combo into an R&B-styled backbeat. Together reed flattement and harsh ruffs from the drummer build up the exposition’s intensity as it unrolls.

A similar heavy beat is present on a different version of “Q01” via accelerating, high frequency piano overtones, drum whaps, bass thumps and muted plunger cries from American Taylor Ho Bynum’s trumpbone. Eventually, the brass man’s braying escalates to fire engine-like squeals as Braam’s patterning keeps the narrative moving.

British saxophonist/bagpiper Paul Dunmall on “Q41” introduces enough dynamic energy with his two horns to almost need no additional help. First his soprano undulates and snakes, and then his chanter and bellows vibrate multiphonic yelps that deepen his initial tone measures. It’s up to de Joode to use the skills he utilizes playing with saxophonists as different as Frank Gratkowski or Ken Vandermark to keep the program from running off the rails. High-pitched buzzes and scrubs, plus quivering string smacks do the trick.

Luckily Braam’s purposeful key flailing and Vatcher’s swelling ruffs are both available on “Q51”, when Swedish baritone saxophonist Mats Gustafsson shows up to violently scream and snort. Canadian clarinetist François Houle vibrates andante split tones as well. But it takes concentrated interface from the trio members to mute the pressurized reed work and push it towards a final moderato variant characterized by strummed pulses from Braam and quiet paradiddles from Vatcher.

Quartet also includes five examples of Trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher’s alternately rhythmic and lyrical harmonies. But anyone familiar with the trio members already knows how well they work together. The challenge here is to use the Braam-composed material as jumping off points for diverse improvisational strategies from each guest. That they are able to direct each approach into a unified whole without compromising the clear trio sound is a tribute to their skills and adaptability.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: CD 1: Q16* 2. Q02 3. Q18 4. Q14* 5. Q51^ 6. Q27+ 7. Q01+ 8. Q01 CD2: 1.Q02* 2. Q23* 3. Q03# 4. Q01# 5. Q17 6. Q03 7.Q08 8. Q41&

Personnel: Michiel Braam (piano); Wilbert de Joode (bass) and Michael Vatcher (drums) plus Taylor Ho Bynum+ (cornet or trombone); Michael Moore* (clarinet, bass clarinet or alto saxophone); Peter van Bergen# (soprano or tenor saxophone); Paul Dunmall& (soprano saxophone and bagpipes); and François Houle^ (clarinet) and Mats Gustafson^ (baritone saxophone)

January 13, 2011

Paul Dunmall/Chris Corsano

Identical Sunsets
ESP 4058

Van Hove/Dunmall/Rogers/Lytton

Asynchronous

SLAM CD 283

Philip Gibbs/Paul Dunmall/Tony Hymas/Paul Rogers/Neil Metcalfe/Tony Levin

Mumuksuta

Duns Limited Edition DLE 066

Straddling the sometimes artificially constructed divide that separates Jazz and Free Music is London-based woodwind player Paul Dunmall. He is able to creditably comport himself no matter the sonic situation in settings ranging from solo gigs to large ensembles. Three recent CDs demonstrate these skills in varied settings, only one of which is a bit louche.

One-quarter of the cooperative British quartet Mujician, Dunmall performs in top-form on Asynchronous, a live date with a similarly constituted band. Here Dunmall on tenor saxophonist is joined by Mujician-mate Paul Rogers, with his distinctive 7-string bass, as well as veteran Antwerp-based pianist Fred Van Hove, and English drummer Paul Lytton, a long-time collaborator of saxophonist Evan Parker. Young American drummer Chris Corsano plays with musicians inside and outside of Free Music, including Icelandic vocalist Björk. His no-holds-barred duet on Identical Sunsets, with Dunmall playing tenor saxophone and border pipes, can stand alongside the drummer’s other memorable CDs with Parker or American saxophonist Paul Flaherty.

On then other hand, with Dunmall moving among soprano and tenor saxophones, and bass clarinet, and surrounded by musical mates with whom he plays regularly, Mumuksuta should have been better than it is. Rogers and Mujician drummer Tony Levin are on board, and the sextet is filled out by guitarist Philip Gibbs, who has regularly worked with the saxophonist since at least the turn of the century; flautist Neil Metcalfe, who is part of both the London Improvisers Orchestra and Parker’s Transatlantic Art Ensemble; and pianist Tony Hymas, who has composed and performed notated string quartets, vocal music and music for dance, as well as working with leaders even more varied than Corsano’s, including vocalist Cleo Laine and bassists Bruno Chevillon. Mumuksuta’s shortcoming is that, not unlike many improv sessions, the band seems to puff, pull, push and propel timbres without much cohesion all during the first track. It’s not until Levin advances a hint of groove that the performance concentrates into a multi-faceted, if a bit overlong work.

With Identical Sunsets however, the time rolls by more productively as Corsano and Dunmall set up parameters following an interlude of multiphonic valve-pressured drones from the pipes and buzzes from drumsticks applied vertically to cymbals. Once the ground is furrowed, budding improvisation takes root with multiphonic expansions and contrapuntal pulsations from both men, each subsequent set seemingly fiercer than the one that preceded it. The saxophonist shrieks and shreds irregular tongue flutters as discordant ghost notes smears are wedged together rock-solidly and ricochet against the drummer’s hearty rebounds, drags and clip-clops. Lining up rough tongue squeezes, and melismatic runs pushed still further with diaphragm extensions, Dunmall’s creative furor is such that at points the drummer almost seems absent. And that’s just on “Living Proof.”

Luckily Corsano regroups with increased vigor on “Better Get Another Lighthouse” and elsewhere. Projecting an intermezzo of loosened lugs and intermittent bass-drum thuds, the percussionist paradiddles his snares, then answers those motions with hollowed thumps from the toms. Ultimately he builds up to cymbal slaps and hocketing resolutions, adding a few verbal cries. While these pressurized patterns are in the air, Dunmall extends and reaffirms his reed power with glossolalia, guttural snorts and glottal punctuation. Wisps of half-forgotten tunes appear for seconds during his chesty vibration and then vanish. By the climax the saxophone’s false register shrieks and screaming sound shards bond seamlessly with Corsano’s percussion rebounds.

If Corsano’s drum rumbles inflate with rock music’s heritage of beefy backbeats, then Lytton’s percussion discussion spread over his kit and various add-ons. is the epitome of European finesse. Although eminently capable of thick pounding when called for, say to counter fiercely accelerating licks from Van Hove, the drummer’s usual approach joins rasps, drags, strokes and flaps on a woodblock, unattached cymbals and drum tops, and with a judicious application of shuffle beats and rim shots calms down the fortissimo friction from other players.

All this is stunningly apparent during Asynchronous’ nearly 47-minute title track. Building on a foundation of thick stopping double bass lines, metronomic chording and swirling cadences from the pianist, plus wood pops and skittering textures from Lytton, Dunmall expels intense split tones with all his body weight behind them. Answered by continuous chording from Van Hove, the two continue to challenge each other in a broken-octave interface. As the saxman pumps out chorus after chorus of widely splayed guttural honks, the pianist moves from using contrasting dynamics on the keys to reaching inside the piano to stop, stroke and otherwise animate the strings. With Lytton maintaining some delicacy by rapping a small bell with a wire brush, Dunmall turns from nephritic pitch spreading to an unaccompanied version of boudoir slurs and tonguing. Establishing symmetry through Rogers’ passing thumps and the drummer’s flams and rebounds, Dunmall’s flashing altissimo runs and Van Hove’s kinetic cadences, the four reach a climax in due course. However while there is some tension-release at that point, it’s evident that they’ve paused to regroup. Soon, and until the conclusion, further connective and contrapuntal patterns emerge including pile-driver chording from Van Hove; ruffs and rebounds from Lytton; sul tasto runs and shuffle bowing from Rogers; and – surmounting all other textures – Dunmall spewing unconnected flutters and staccato tongue slaps.

Similar extended reed techniques enliven most of Mumuksuta; as do the others’ contributions. But it takes Levin’s toughened and resounding strokes, followed by Hymas’ concentrated note clusters to, on the second track, finally force the others to sharpen their textures. Before that it seems that “Yearning for Freedom” will remain just that, unfocused, meandering and inchoate. Luckily Levin’s Free Jazz variant of shock treatment rouses everyone from a collective stupor. Soon Gibbs is snapping single-line runs; the saxophonist’s expressive cadences burst out, fiddle-like sul ponticello squeaks arrive from Rogers’ hands and even Metcalfe, whose legato flute lines were previously almost jejune, shreds and sharpens his tone to strident peeps.

Even more appropriately, sounds on the remaining tracks, “One’s True Nature” and “From All Bondages” accurately reflect their titles. Levin’s flams and ruff in his solo concentrate the group improvisation as Rogers walks, Hymas comps, and Dunmall’s soprano saxophone cries are almost Country Blues-like. Unexpectedly the flutist too is emboldened, as he almost literally bites into his transverse instrument, squeezing out fierce flutters and octave jumps. Meantime Gibbs and Hymas intertwine guitar-picking fills and down strokes on wound piano strings.

Happily the final variant is even more spectacular, with Dunmall’s bass clarinet snorting out coarsened screams; rasgueado pulses from Gibbs; rubato cadenzas from the pianist; and the drummer managing to produce a conga-like rhythm. Appearing as if everyone wants a final lick before the end, taut variations of more extended techniques are exposed before low-frequency piano arpeggios signal completion.

Two hits and one near miss isn’t a bad record for someone who records as frequently as Dunmall. Perhaps more restraint and/or careful editing may have improved even the sextet CD.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Identical: 1. Identical Sunsets 2. Living Proof 3. Better Get Another Lighthouse 4. Out of Sight

Personnel: Identical: Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone and border pipes) and Chris Corsano (drums)

Track Listing: Mumuksuta: 1.Yearning for Freedom 2 Desire to Free Oneself 3. One’s True Nature 4. From All Bondages

Personnel: Mumuksuta: Paul Dunmall,(soprano and tenor saxophones, Bb and bass clarinets); Neil Metcalfe (flute); Tony Hymas ( piano); Philip Gibbs (guitar); Paul Rogers (7-string bass) and Tony Levin (drums)

Track Listing: Asynchronous: 1. Asynchronous 2. Moves

Personnel: Asynchronous: Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone and border pipes); Fred Van Hove (piano); Paul Rogers (7-string bass) and Paul Lytton (drums)

October 27, 2010

Philip Gibbs/Paul Dunmall/Tony Hymas/Paul Rogers/Neil Metcalfe/Tony Levin

Mumuksuta
Duns Limited Edition DLE 066

Paul Dunmall/Chris Corsano

Identical Sunsets

ESP 4058

Van Hove/Dunmall/Rogers/Lytton

Asynchronous

SLAM CD 283

Straddling the sometimes artificially constructed divide that separates Jazz and Free Music is London-based woodwind player Paul Dunmall. He is able to creditably comport himself no matter the sonic situation in settings ranging from solo gigs to large ensembles. Three recent CDs demonstrate these skills in varied settings, only one of which is a bit louche.

One-quarter of the cooperative British quartet Mujician, Dunmall performs in top-form on Asynchronous, a live date with a similarly constituted band. Here Dunmall on tenor saxophonist is joined by Mujician-mate Paul Rogers, with his distinctive 7-string bass, as well as veteran Antwerp-based pianist Fred Van Hove, and English drummer Paul Lytton, a long-time collaborator of saxophonist Evan Parker. Young American drummer Chris Corsano plays with musicians inside and outside of Free Music, including Icelandic vocalist Björk. His no-holds-barred duet on Identical Sunsets, with Dunmall playing tenor saxophone and border pipes, can stand alongside the drummer’s other memorable CDs with Parker or American saxophonist Paul Flaherty.

On then other hand, with Dunmall moving among soprano and tenor saxophones, and bass clarinet, and surrounded by musical mates with whom he plays regularly, Mumuksuta should have been better than it is. Rogers and Mujician drummer Tony Levin are on board, and the sextet is filled out by guitarist Philip Gibbs, who has regularly worked with the saxophonist since at least the turn of the century; flautist Neil Metcalfe, who is part of both the London Improvisers Orchestra and Parker’s Transatlantic Art Ensemble; and pianist Tony Hymas, who has composed and performed notated string quartets, vocal music and music for dance, as well as working with leaders even more varied than Corsano’s, including vocalist Cleo Laine and bassists Bruno Chevillon. Mumuksuta’s shortcoming is that, not unlike many improv sessions, the band seems to puff, pull, push and propel timbres without much cohesion all during the first track. It’s not until Levin advances a hint of groove that the performance concentrates into a multi-faceted, if a bit overlong work.

With Identical Sunsets however, the time rolls by more productively as Corsano and Dunmall set up parameters following an interlude of multiphonic valve-pressured drones from the pipes and buzzes from drumsticks applied vertically to cymbals. Once the ground is furrowed, budding improvisation takes root with multiphonic expansions and contrapuntal pulsations from both men, each subsequent set seemingly fiercer than the one that preceded it. The saxophonist shrieks and shreds irregular tongue flutters as discordant ghost notes smears are wedged together rock-solidly and ricochet against the drummer’s hearty rebounds, drags and clip-clops. Lining up rough tongue squeezes, and melismatic runs pushed still further with diaphragm extensions, Dunmall’s creative furor is such that at points the drummer almost seems absent. And that’s just on “Living Proof.”

Luckily Corsano regroups with increased vigor on “Better Get Another Lighthouse” and elsewhere. Projecting an intermezzo of loosened lugs and intermittent bass-drum thuds, the percussionist paradiddles his snares, then answers those motions with hollowed thumps from the toms. Ultimately he builds up to cymbal slaps and hocketing resolutions, adding a few verbal cries. While these pressurized patterns are in the air, Dunmall extends and reaffirms his reed power with glossolalia, guttural snorts and glottal punctuation. Wisps of half-forgotten tunes appear for seconds during his chesty vibration and then vanish. By the climax the saxophone’s false register shrieks and screaming sound shards bond seamlessly with Corsano’s percussion rebounds.

If Corsano’s drum rumbles inflate with rock music’s heritage of beefy backbeats, then Lytton’s percussion discussion spread over his kit and various add-ons. is the epitome of European finesse. Although eminently capable of thick pounding when called for, say to counter fiercely accelerating licks from Van Hove, the drummer’s usual approach joins rasps, drags, strokes and flaps on a woodblock, unattached cymbals and drum tops, and with a judicious application of shuffle beats and rim shots calms down the fortissimo friction from other players.

All this is stunningly apparent during Asynchronous’ nearly 47-minute title track. Building on a foundation of thick stopping double bass lines, metronomic chording and swirling cadences from the pianist, plus wood pops and skittering textures from Lytton, Dunmall expels intense split tones with all his body weight behind them. Answered by continuous chording from Van Hove, the two continue to challenge each other in a broken-octave interface. As the saxman pumps out chorus after chorus of widely splayed guttural honks, the pianist moves from using contrasting dynamics on the keys to reaching inside the piano to stop, stroke and otherwise animate the strings. With Lytton maintaining some delicacy by rapping a small bell with a wire brush, Dunmall turns from nephritic pitch spreading to an unaccompanied version of boudoir slurs and tonguing. Establishing symmetry through Rogers’ passing thumps and the drummer’s flams and rebounds, Dunmall’s flashing altissimo runs and Van Hove’s kinetic cadences, the four reach a climax in due course. However while there is some tension-release at that point, it’s evident that they’ve paused to regroup. Soon, and until the conclusion, further connective and contrapuntal patterns emerge including pile-driver chording from Van Hove; ruffs and rebounds from Lytton; sul tasto runs and shuffle bowing from Rogers; and – surmounting all other textures – Dunmall spewing unconnected flutters and staccato tongue slaps.

Similar extended reed techniques enliven most of Mumuksuta; as do the others’ contributions. But it takes Levin’s toughened and resounding strokes, followed by Hymas’ concentrated note clusters to, on the second track, finally force the others to sharpen their textures. Before that it seems that “Yearning for Freedom” will remain just that, unfocused, meandering and inchoate. Luckily Levin’s Free Jazz variant of shock treatment rouses everyone from a collective stupor. Soon Gibbs is snapping single-line runs; the saxophonist’s expressive cadences burst out, fiddle-like sul ponticello squeaks arrive from Rogers’ hands and even Metcalfe, whose legato flute lines were previously almost jejune, shreds and sharpens his tone to strident peeps.

Even more appropriately, sounds on the remaining tracks, “One’s True Nature” and “From All Bondages” accurately reflect their titles. Levin’s flams and ruff in his solo concentrate the group improvisation as Rogers walks, Hymas comps, and Dunmall’s soprano saxophone cries are almost Country Blues-like. Unexpectedly the flutist too is emboldened, as he almost literally bites into his transverse instrument, squeezing out fierce flutters and octave jumps. Meantime Gibbs and Hymas intertwine guitar-picking fills and down strokes on wound piano strings.

Happily the final variant is even more spectacular, with Dunmall’s bass clarinet snorting out coarsened screams; rasgueado pulses from Gibbs; rubato cadenzas from the pianist; and the drummer managing to produce a conga-like rhythm. Appearing as if everyone wants a final lick before the end, taut variations of more extended techniques are exposed before low-frequency piano arpeggios signal completion.

Two hits and one near miss isn’t a bad record for someone who records as frequently as Dunmall. Perhaps more restraint and/or careful editing may have improved even the sextet CD.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Identical: 1. Identical Sunsets 2. Living Proof 3. Better Get Another Lighthouse 4. Out of Sight

Personnel: Identical: Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone and border pipes) and Chris Corsano (drums)

Track Listing: Mumuksuta: 1.Yearning for Freedom 2 Desire to Free Oneself 3. One’s True Nature 4. From All Bondages

Personnel: Mumuksuta: Paul Dunmall,(soprano and tenor saxophones, Bb and bass clarinets); Neil Metcalfe (flute); Tony Hymas ( piano); Philip Gibbs (guitar); Paul Rogers (7-string bass) and Tony Levin (drums)

Track Listing: Asynchronous: 1. Asynchronous 2. Moves

Personnel: Asynchronous: Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone and border pipes); Fred Van Hove (piano); Paul Rogers (7-string bass) and Paul Lytton (drums)

October 27, 2010

Van Hove/Dunmall/Rogers/Lytton

Asynchronous
SLAM CD 283

Paul Dunmall/Chris Corsano

Identical Sunsets

ESP 4058

Philip Gibbs/Paul Dunmall/Tony Hymas/Paul Rogers/Neil Metcalfe/Tony Levin

Mumuksuta

Duns Limited Edition DLE 066

Straddling the sometimes artificially constructed divide that separates Jazz and Free Music is London-based woodwind player Paul Dunmall. He is able to creditably comport himself no matter the sonic situation in settings ranging from solo gigs to large ensembles. Three recent CDs demonstrate these skills in varied settings, only one of which is a bit louche.

One-quarter of the cooperative British quartet Mujician, Dunmall performs in top-form on Asynchronous, a live date with a similarly constituted band. Here Dunmall on tenor saxophonist is joined by Mujician-mate Paul Rogers, with his distinctive 7-string bass, as well as veteran Antwerp-based pianist Fred Van Hove, and English drummer Paul Lytton, a long-time collaborator of saxophonist Evan Parker. Young American drummer Chris Corsano plays with musicians inside and outside of Free Music, including Icelandic vocalist Björk. His no-holds-barred duet on Identical Sunsets, with Dunmall playing tenor saxophone and border pipes, can stand alongside the drummer’s other memorable CDs with Parker or American saxophonist Paul Flaherty.

On then other hand, with Dunmall moving among soprano and tenor saxophones, and bass clarinet, and surrounded by musical mates with whom he plays regularly, Mumuksuta should have been better than it is. Rogers and Mujician drummer Tony Levin are on board, and the sextet is filled out by guitarist Philip Gibbs, who has regularly worked with the saxophonist since at least the turn of the century; flautist Neil Metcalfe, who is part of both the London Improvisers Orchestra and Parker’s Transatlantic Art Ensemble; and pianist Tony Hymas, who has composed and performed notated string quartets, vocal music and music for dance, as well as working with leaders even more varied than Corsano’s, including vocalist Cleo Laine and bassists Bruno Chevillon. Mumuksuta’s shortcoming is that, not unlike many improv sessions, the band seems to puff, pull, push and propel timbres without much cohesion all during the first track. It’s not until Levin advances a hint of groove that the performance concentrates into a multi-faceted, if a bit overlong work.

With Identical Sunsets however, the time rolls by more productively as Corsano and Dunmall set up parameters following an interlude of multiphonic valve-pressured drones from the pipes and buzzes from drumsticks applied vertically to cymbals. Once the ground is furrowed, budding improvisation takes root with multiphonic expansions and contrapuntal pulsations from both men, each subsequent set seemingly fiercer than the one that preceded it. The saxophonist shrieks and shreds irregular tongue flutters as discordant ghost notes smears are wedged together rock-solidly and ricochet against the drummer’s hearty rebounds, drags and clip-clops. Lining up rough tongue squeezes, and melismatic runs pushed still further with diaphragm extensions, Dunmall’s creative furor is such that at points the drummer almost seems absent. And that’s just on “Living Proof.”

Luckily Corsano regroups with increased vigor on “Better Get Another Lighthouse” and elsewhere. Projecting an intermezzo of loosened lugs and intermittent bass-drum thuds, the percussionist paradiddles his snares, then answers those motions with hollowed thumps from the toms. Ultimately he builds up to cymbal slaps and hocketing resolutions, adding a few verbal cries. While these pressurized patterns are in the air, Dunmall extends and reaffirms his reed power with glossolalia, guttural snorts and glottal punctuation. Wisps of half-forgotten tunes appear for seconds during his chesty vibration and then vanish. By the climax the saxophone’s false register shrieks and screaming sound shards bond seamlessly with Corsano’s percussion rebounds.

If Corsano’s drum rumbles inflate with rock music’s heritage of beefy backbeats, then Lytton’s percussion discussion spread over his kit and various add-ons. is the epitome of European finesse. Although eminently capable of thick pounding when called for, say to counter fiercely accelerating licks from Van Hove, the drummer’s usual approach joins rasps, drags, strokes and flaps on a woodblock, unattached cymbals and drum tops, and with a judicious application of shuffle beats and rim shots calms down the fortissimo friction from other players.

All this is stunningly apparent during Asynchronous’ nearly 47-minute title track. Building on a foundation of thick stopping double bass lines, metronomic chording and swirling cadences from the pianist, plus wood pops and skittering textures from Lytton, Dunmall expels intense split tones with all his body weight behind them. Answered by continuous chording from Van Hove, the two continue to challenge each other in a broken-octave interface. As the saxman pumps out chorus after chorus of widely splayed guttural honks, the pianist moves from using contrasting dynamics on the keys to reaching inside the piano to stop, stroke and otherwise animate the strings. With Lytton maintaining some delicacy by rapping a small bell with a wire brush, Dunmall turns from nephritic pitch spreading to an unaccompanied version of boudoir slurs and tonguing. Establishing symmetry through Rogers’ passing thumps and the drummer’s flams and rebounds, Dunmall’s flashing altissimo runs and Van Hove’s kinetic cadences, the four reach a climax in due course. However while there is some tension-release at that point, it’s evident that they’ve paused to regroup. Soon, and until the conclusion, further connective and contrapuntal patterns emerge including pile-driver chording from Van Hove; ruffs and rebounds from Lytton; sul tasto runs and shuffle bowing from Rogers; and – surmounting all other textures – Dunmall spewing unconnected flutters and staccato tongue slaps.

Similar extended reed techniques enliven most of Mumuksuta; as do the others’ contributions. But it takes Levin’s toughened and resounding strokes, followed by Hymas’ concentrated note clusters to, on the second track, finally force the others to sharpen their textures. Before that it seems that “Yearning for Freedom” will remain just that, unfocused, meandering and inchoate. Luckily Levin’s Free Jazz variant of shock treatment rouses everyone from a collective stupor. Soon Gibbs is snapping single-line runs; the saxophonist’s expressive cadences burst out, fiddle-like sul ponticello squeaks arrive from Rogers’ hands and even Metcalfe, whose legato flute lines were previously almost jejune, shreds and sharpens his tone to strident peeps.

Even more appropriately, sounds on the remaining tracks, “One’s True Nature” and “From All Bondages” accurately reflect their titles. Levin’s flams and ruff in his solo concentrate the group improvisation as Rogers walks, Hymas comps, and Dunmall’s soprano saxophone cries are almost Country Blues-like. Unexpectedly the flutist too is emboldened, as he almost literally bites into his transverse instrument, squeezing out fierce flutters and octave jumps. Meantime Gibbs and Hymas intertwine guitar-picking fills and down strokes on wound piano strings.

Happily the final variant is even more spectacular, with Dunmall’s bass clarinet snorting out coarsened screams; rasgueado pulses from Gibbs; rubato cadenzas from the pianist; and the drummer managing to produce a conga-like rhythm. Appearing as if everyone wants a final lick before the end, taut variations of more extended techniques are exposed before low-frequency piano arpeggios signal completion.

Two hits and one near miss isn’t a bad record for someone who records as frequently as Dunmall. Perhaps more restraint and/or careful editing may have improved even the sextet CD.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Identical: 1. Identical Sunsets 2. Living Proof 3. Better Get Another Lighthouse 4. Out of Sight

Personnel: Identical: Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone and border pipes) and Chris Corsano (drums)

Track Listing: Mumuksuta: 1.Yearning for Freedom 2 Desire to Free Oneself 3. One’s True Nature 4. From All Bondages

Personnel: Mumuksuta: Paul Dunmall,(soprano and tenor saxophones, Bb and bass clarinets); Neil Metcalfe (flute); Tony Hymas ( piano); Philip Gibbs (guitar); Paul Rogers (7-string bass) and Tony Levin (drums)

Track Listing: Asynchronous: 1. Asynchronous 2. Moves

Personnel: Asynchronous: Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone and border pipes); Fred Van Hove (piano); Paul Rogers (7-string bass) and Paul Lytton (drums)

October 27, 2010

Dunmall/Bourne/Kane/Davis

Moment to Moment
SLAM CD 279

Profound Sound Trio

Opus De Life

Porter Records PRCD 4032

Any purported differences that are supposed to divide American Free Jazz from European Free Jazz vanish under the steady assault of British tenor saxophonist Paul Dunmall when he works up a full head of improvising steam on Moment to Moment and Opus De Life.

Granted that the meeting on the first CD between the London-based saxophonist and a Leeds-based rhythm section begins with an interface more understated and timbre-searching than the spectacular blow-out he participated in with two legendary New York Free Jazzers eight days previously on Opus De Life. Yet when the saxophonist explodes into glossolalia and triple-tonguing on the more-than-19 minute “Voluntary Expressions” the distance created by the Atlantic Ocean seems to shrivel into puddle width. This is universal improvising; not British or American Jazz.

His accomplishment on these two CDs confirms that the power of the music is such that unexpectedly any date can turn into a major statement. Although the pairing between Dunmall – one of Britain’s most accomplished players, known for his membership in Mujician – with drummer Andrew Cyrille and bassist Henry Grimes was a justly anticipated set at 2008’s Vision Festival in New York, Moment to Moment was initially conceived as merely another provincial Dunmall gig.

Well, not really merely, but it’s truer that pianist/cellist Matthew Bourne, Leeds College of Music’s artist in residence; bassist Dave Kane and drummer Steve Davis have no profile compared to Cyrille and Grimes, who singly or together have played with nearly every pioneering major Free Jazz figure from Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton to Sonny Rollins and Albert Ayler. But improvisation involving seizing the moment, and that’s exactly what the four did at the University of West England that day, especially the saxophonist.

With the rhythm section moving as one, Dunmall’s initial response to Bourne’s rolling piano chords studded with pin-pricked single notes, plus Davis’ spaced rebounds and Kane’s steady walking is carefully timed saxophone breaths and unfurling outward riffing. When the saxophonist finally explodes into honking and slurring, these sounds are immediately matched in double counterpoint by Bourne’s high-frequency note clusters. No one looks back after that, and soon Dunmall is whistling obbligato-like behind Bourne’s accelerating tone placement and Kane’s chromatic coloration.

As “Voluntary Expressions” kicks into gear, upper-register reed squeaks vie for space along with piano key clips, reverberations from the wound internal piano strings and spiccato plucks from the bass. Soon a powerful rasgueado from Kane along with contrapuntal ruffs from Davis encourage the saxophonist’s shaking, slurry squeals. As Bourne rappels down the scale, then tears into connective chords, the reedist’s irregular pacing turns to horn-body splintering altissimo cries and guttural blasts. Finale involves Kane fuelling the interchange with triple-stopping and hand-pumping as the quadruple counterpoint dissolves into a flurry of repeated notes.

Would that Grimes, whose rediscovery early in the century was of Bunk Johnsonian-proportions, could bring the same power to his part that Kane does to his. Ignoring as well the simpering sweeps which characterize his violin solos, Grimes’ bass work is adequate to apt, leaving the heavy lifting to Dunmall and Cyrille. Overall the bassist’s presence appears to awake memories of Grimes’ tenure with Sonny Rollins in the saxman. So much so, that the final variant of Dunmall’s solo on “This Way, Please” mixes glossolalia and split tones and suggestions of half-forgotten pop tunes with which Rollins often transmogrified in his solos.

Cyrille claps, clanks, door-knocks, splashes his cymbal tops and pitter-patters ruffs, adding variety to his accompaniment. Meantime Grimes slides and stops, sometimes sawing the odd arco note. In contrast Dunmall’s output is thick and blanched, with the timbres seemingly not only sourced from the bottom and bow of his horn, but his stomach and lung linings as well. Renal and guttural in expression, his horn command never falters either. On “Beyonder” for instance he slows the tempo to expose sul tasto work from Grimes, and then reanimates the reed flow with honking and nephritic runs and reed bites. Hard and tough throughout, he complements Cyrille’s shuffle beat at the very end for a melodically tonal, double-tongued coda.

Two examples of Dunmall’s skill, these CDs vary only in location, duration, number of sidemen and their relative notoriety. More similar than not, the improvisations featured on both can be enjoyed in the same spirit.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Moment: 1. Moment to moment 2. Voluntary Expressions 3.Black Sun 4. The Face

Personnel: Moment: Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone); Matthew Bourne (piano and cello); Dave Kane (bass) and Steve Davis (drums)

Track Listing: Opus: 1. This Way, Please 2.Call Paul 3. Whirligigging 4. Beyonder 5. Futurity

Personnel: Opus: Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone and bagpipes); Henry Grimes (bass and violin) and Andrew Cyrille (drums)

January 1, 2010

Profound Sound Trio

Opus De Life
Porter Records PRCD 4032

Dunmall/Bourne/Kane/Davis

Moment to Moment

SLAM CD 279

Any purported differences that are supposed to divide American Free Jazz from European Free Jazz vanish under the steady assault of British tenor saxophonist Paul Dunmall when he works up a full head of improvising steam on Moment to Moment and Opus De Life.

Granted that the meeting on the first CD between the London-based saxophonist and a Leeds-based rhythm section begins with an interface more understated and timbre-searching than the spectacular blow-out he participated in with two legendary New York Free Jazzers eight days previously on Opus De Life. Yet when the saxophonist explodes into glossolalia and triple-tonguing on the more-than-19 minute “Voluntary Expressions” the distance created by the Atlantic Ocean seems to shrivel into puddle width. This is universal improvising; not British or American Jazz.

His accomplishment on these two CDs confirms that the power of the music is such that unexpectedly any date can turn into a major statement. Although the pairing between Dunmall – one of Britain’s most accomplished players, known for his membership in Mujician – with drummer Andrew Cyrille and bassist Henry Grimes was a justly anticipated set at 2008’s Vision Festival in New York, Moment to Moment was initially conceived as merely another provincial Dunmall gig.

Well, not really merely, but it’s truer that pianist/cellist Matthew Bourne, Leeds College of Music’s artist in residence; bassist Dave Kane and drummer Steve Davis have no profile compared to Cyrille and Grimes, who singly or together have played with nearly every pioneering major Free Jazz figure from Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton to Sonny Rollins and Albert Ayler. But improvisation involving seizing the moment, and that’s exactly what the four did at the University of West England that day, especially the saxophonist.

With the rhythm section moving as one, Dunmall’s initial response to Bourne’s rolling piano chords studded with pin-pricked single notes, plus Davis’ spaced rebounds and Kane’s steady walking is carefully timed saxophone breaths and unfurling outward riffing. When the saxophonist finally explodes into honking and slurring, these sounds are immediately matched in double counterpoint by Bourne’s high-frequency note clusters. No one looks back after that, and soon Dunmall is whistling obbligato-like behind Bourne’s accelerating tone placement and Kane’s chromatic coloration.

As “Voluntary Expressions” kicks into gear, upper-register reed squeaks vie for space along with piano key clips, reverberations from the wound internal piano strings and spiccato plucks from the bass. Soon a powerful rasgueado from Kane along with contrapuntal ruffs from Davis encourage the saxophonist’s shaking, slurry squeals. As Bourne rappels down the scale, then tears into connective chords, the reedist’s irregular pacing turns to horn-body splintering altissimo cries and guttural blasts. Finale involves Kane fuelling the interchange with triple-stopping and hand-pumping as the quadruple counterpoint dissolves into a flurry of repeated notes.

Would that Grimes, whose rediscovery early in the century was of Bunk Johnsonian-proportions, could bring the same power to his part that Kane does to his. Ignoring as well the simpering sweeps which characterize his violin solos, Grimes’ bass work is adequate to apt, leaving the heavy lifting to Dunmall and Cyrille. Overall the bassist’s presence appears to awake memories of Grimes’ tenure with Sonny Rollins in the saxman. So much so, that the final variant of Dunmall’s solo on “This Way, Please” mixes glossolalia and split tones and suggestions of half-forgotten pop tunes with which Rollins often transmogrified in his solos.

Cyrille claps, clanks, door-knocks, splashes his cymbal tops and pitter-patters ruffs, adding variety to his accompaniment. Meantime Grimes slides and stops, sometimes sawing the odd arco note. In contrast Dunmall’s output is thick and blanched, with the timbres seemingly not only sourced from the bottom and bow of his horn, but his stomach and lung linings as well. Renal and guttural in expression, his horn command never falters either. On “Beyonder” for instance he slows the tempo to expose sul tasto work from Grimes, and then reanimates the reed flow with honking and nephritic runs and reed bites. Hard and tough throughout, he complements Cyrille’s shuffle beat at the very end for a melodically tonal, double-tongued coda.

Two examples of Dunmall’s skill, these CDs vary only in location, duration, number of sidemen and their relative notoriety. More similar than not, the improvisations featured on both can be enjoyed in the same spirit.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Moment: 1. Moment to moment 2. Voluntary Expressions 3.Black Sun 4. The Face

Personnel: Moment: Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone); Matthew Bourne (piano and cello); Dave Kane (bass) and Steve Davis (drums)

Track Listing: Opus: 1. This Way, Please 2.Call Paul 3. Whirligigging 4. Beyonder 5. Futurity

Personnel: Opus: Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone and bagpipes); Henry Grimes (bass and violin) and Andrew Cyrille (drums)

January 1, 2010

The September Quartet

What Goes Around
Loose Torque LT 015

Paul Dunmall Sun Quartet

Ancient and Future Airs

Clean Feed CF 138 CD

As he has proved in other situations – most notably his two decades long membership in both the London Jazz Composers Orchestra and the collective quartet Mujician – saxophonist Paul Dunmall is the consummate group player.

With wide-ranging influences that take in Carnatic sounds, semi-folk material, so-called Ecstatic Jazz and free-form improv, the London-based musician is known for his tenor saxophone playing, but also tries out other members of the saxophone family – including the saxello – and has recently turned his attention to the border bagpipes.

Each of these ancillary horns makes an appearance on these notable quartet sessions. Recorded in the company of fellow British improvisers, the September Quartet features bassist Nick Stephen and drummer Tony Marsh, the trumpet of Jon Corbett and Dunmall’s tenor and saxello playing. Flash forward two years to 2008, when after an appearance at New York’s Vision Fest, Dunmall recorded the next day as part of the completely different Sun Quartet. Here his partners are all well-regarded Americans: bassist Mark Helias and Kevin Norton on drums and vibraphone, plus Tony Malaby playing soprano and tenor saxophones. Dunmall not only showcases his tenor work, but his bagpipe style as well.

Of similar build and hirsuteness, both Malaby and Dunmall bring the same lung power to their tenor saxophone playing, using split tones, inflating diaphragm vibratos and altissimo cries to good advantage. Operating in double counterpoint and exploring individual sonic paths only feature distinguishing Malaby from Dunmall – and vice versa – is that one sax appears to be pitched higher than the other. One sky shrieks while the other favors moderato timbres. Exact identification only happens when Malaby switches to the soprano and Dunmall brings out his bagpipes.

During those sections of the extended improv, Malaby’s soprano wriggles in serpentine lines which expose nodes as well as notes and uses a grittier tone to goose the tempo. Far away from pipe band harmonies meanwhile, Dunmall’s pipes and bellows pump up the available air supply with widened and pressured tones leading to triple and quadruple multiphonics. As the pitch-sliding bagpipe drone redefines the overall sound, Malaby narrows his output with reed biting abrasive tones.

Helias’ thick lope and Norton’s slaps, rebounds and accentuated drum strokes hold the performance together regardless of the reedists’ oral gymnastics. However the metallic sparkles and slides instituted by Norton’s vibraphone in the tune’s slower sections create a unique transitional texture. At points either one or another of his percussion instruments foreshadows tempo and pitch changes, as when cymbal taping introduces internal split tones intensity from the saxophonists or when pin-pointed drum strokes and rim shots usher in a section of mellow and balladic reed runs.

Divided into four long sections, as opposed to the massive single track and short encore that make up the other CD, What Goes Around is another ad hoc set up. British expatriate trumpeter Jon Corbett arrived from his home in Germany to record with his homeboys, who besides Dunmall, include veteran bassist Nick Stephens, who has recorded with everyone from Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad to American Norton, and drummer Tony Marsh, a frequent Stephens associate.

Unlike Norton, Marsh confines his work to the drum set and the drummer’s traditional time-keeping role, only figuratively stepping forward a few times to take sharp and restrained solos. In this different configuration, there’s less good-natured challenging from Dunmall – although his work with Malaby could scarcely be termed a saxophone battle – and more tone intermingling. Still, it’s the tenor man who, more often than not, steps outside the comfort zone with measured split tones, while Corbett specializes in andante trumpet flourishes, gentling grace notes and muted obbligatos.

At the same time, the brass man does reveal short, frenetic sound bites or hummingbird-quick tube explorations, as he does on “Follow Me Follow”. There, his gentling trumpet obbligato precedes soprano saxophone sluices and cymbal vibrations. Abutting one another, the horns’ output separate lines as Stephens’ bass walks and Marsh’s drums rebound. With the horns’ irregular vibrato sweetened with oral splays and growls, the track ends with a conclusive double bass pluck.

Fittingly the four climax with “All’s Well that End’s Well”, with Dunmall back on tenor, Corbett playing chromatic lines, and the rhythm section creating a rolling wave of string-thwacked thunder plus skittering drum beats and rim shots respectively. As the saxophonist introduces squat split tones and slurs to break up the time, he’s aided by the bassist’s supple cross strokes and half stops. Eventually the trumpeter and reedist stutter tremolo tones at one another: with one man’s timbres echoing the first’s almost immediately after initial creation. Finally sul ponticello string work, clattering drum beats, brass flutter-tonguing and reed tongue-stops coalesce architecturally, until the sounds gradually diminishing into a warm flurry of grace notes from both horns.

Whichever part of this mixed Anglo-American program you prefer, each CD shows off Dunmall’s inventiveness in a context with equally impressive cohorts.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Ancient: 1. Ancient Airs 2. Future Airs

Personnel: Ancient: Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone and bagpipes); Tony Malaby (soprano and tenor saxophones): Mark Helias (bass) and Kevin Norton (drums and vibraphone)

Track Listing: What: 1. What Goes Around 2. Follow Me Follow 3. One Thing Leads to Another 4. All’s Well that End’s Well

Personnel: What: Jon Corbett (trumpet); Paul Dunmall (tenor and saxello saxophones): Nick Stephens (bass) and Tony Marsh (drums)

July 3, 2009

Paul Dunmall Sun Quartet

Ancient and Future Airs
Clean Feed CF 138 CD

The September Quartet

What Goes Around

Loose Torque LT 015

As he has proved in other situations – most notably his two decades long membership in both the London Jazz Composers Orchestra and the collective quartet Mujician – saxophonist Paul Dunmall is the consummate group player.

With wide-ranging influences that take in Carnatic sounds, semi-folk material, so-called Ecstatic Jazz and free-form improv, the London-based musician is known for his tenor saxophone playing, but also tries out other members of the saxophone family – including the saxello – and has recently turned his attention to the border bagpipes.

Each of these ancillary horns makes an appearance on these notable quartet sessions. Recorded in the company of fellow British improvisers, the September Quartet features bassist Nick Stephen and drummer Tony Marsh, the trumpet of Jon Corbett and Dunmall’s tenor and saxello playing. Flash forward two years to 2008, when after an appearance at New York’s Vision Fest, Dunmall recorded the next day as part of the completely different Sun Quartet. Here his partners are all well-regarded Americans: bassist Mark Helias and Kevin Norton on drums and vibraphone, plus Tony Malaby playing soprano and tenor saxophones. Dunmall not only showcases his tenor work, but his bagpipe style as well.

Of similar build and hirsuteness, both Malaby and Dunmall bring the same lung power to their tenor saxophone playing, using split tones, inflating diaphragm vibratos and altissimo cries to good advantage. Operating in double counterpoint and exploring individual sonic paths only feature distinguishing Malaby from Dunmall – and vice versa – is that one sax appears to be pitched higher than the other. One sky shrieks while the other favors moderato timbres. Exact identification only happens when Malaby switches to the soprano and Dunmall brings out his bagpipes.

During those sections of the extended improv, Malaby’s soprano wriggles in serpentine lines which expose nodes as well as notes and uses a grittier tone to goose the tempo. Far away from pipe band harmonies meanwhile, Dunmall’s pipes and bellows pump up the available air supply with widened and pressured tones leading to triple and quadruple multiphonics. As the pitch-sliding bagpipe drone redefines the overall sound, Malaby narrows his output with reed biting abrasive tones.

Helias’ thick lope and Norton’s slaps, rebounds and accentuated drum strokes hold the performance together regardless of the reedists’ oral gymnastics. However the metallic sparkles and slides instituted by Norton’s vibraphone in the tune’s slower sections create a unique transitional texture. At points either one or another of his percussion instruments foreshadows tempo and pitch changes, as when cymbal taping introduces internal split tones intensity from the saxophonists or when pin-pointed drum strokes and rim shots usher in a section of mellow and balladic reed runs.

Divided into four long sections, as opposed to the massive single track and short encore that make up the other CD, What Goes Around is another ad hoc set up. British expatriate trumpeter Jon Corbett arrived from his home in Germany to record with his homeboys, who besides Dunmall, include veteran bassist Nick Stephens, who has recorded with everyone from Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad to American Norton, and drummer Tony Marsh, a frequent Stephens associate.

Unlike Norton, Marsh confines his work to the drum set and the drummer’s traditional time-keeping role, only figuratively stepping forward a few times to take sharp and restrained solos. In this different configuration, there’s less good-natured challenging from Dunmall – although his work with Malaby could scarcely be termed a saxophone battle – and more tone intermingling. Still, it’s the tenor man who, more often than not, steps outside the comfort zone with measured split tones, while Corbett specializes in andante trumpet flourishes, gentling grace notes and muted obbligatos.

At the same time, the brass man does reveal short, frenetic sound bites or hummingbird-quick tube explorations, as he does on “Follow Me Follow”. There, his gentling trumpet obbligato precedes soprano saxophone sluices and cymbal vibrations. Abutting one another, the horns’ output separate lines as Stephens’ bass walks and Marsh’s drums rebound. With the horns’ irregular vibrato sweetened with oral splays and growls, the track ends with a conclusive double bass pluck.

Fittingly the four climax with “All’s Well that End’s Well”, with Dunmall back on tenor, Corbett playing chromatic lines, and the rhythm section creating a rolling wave of string-thwacked thunder plus skittering drum beats and rim shots respectively. As the saxophonist introduces squat split tones and slurs to break up the time, he’s aided by the bassist’s supple cross strokes and half stops. Eventually the trumpeter and reedist stutter tremolo tones at one another: with one man’s timbres echoing the first’s almost immediately after initial creation. Finally sul ponticello string work, clattering drum beats, brass flutter-tonguing and reed tongue-stops coalesce architecturally, until the sounds gradually diminishing into a warm flurry of grace notes from both horns.

Whichever part of this mixed Anglo-American program you prefer, each CD shows off Dunmall’s inventiveness in a context with equally impressive cohorts.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Ancient: 1. Ancient Airs 2. Future Airs

Personnel: Ancient: Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone and bagpipes); Tony Malaby (soprano and tenor saxophones): Mark Helias (bass) and Kevin Norton (drums and vibraphone)

Track Listing: What: 1. What Goes Around 2. Follow Me Follow 3. One Thing Leads to Another 4. All’s Well that End’s Well

Personnel: What: Jon Corbett (trumpet); Paul Dunmall (tenor and saxello saxophones): Nick Stephens (bass) and Tony Marsh (drums)

July 3, 2009

QUARTET NOIR

Lugano
Victo cd 096

SCHLIPPENBACH/DUNMALL/ROGERS/BIANCO Vesuvius
SLAMCD 262

Serendipitously recorded eight days apart, these mixed Euro-American quartet CDs with similar instrumentation couldn’t be more different – and that statement encompasses a lot more than personnel or geography.

Matching one of the founders of German Free Jazz with three younger, London-based improvisers is VESUVIUS, an all-out recording session firmly in the Energy Music genre. LUGANO, which is described as “a suite in three movements”, is as much minimalism as Free Improv, with the three Europeans and one American consolidating a series of understated timbres and waveforms into a collection of tones. Amazingly – or perhaps not – both CDs reach the goal of positive music making, though admittedly LUGANO’s are more micro.

Quartet Noir’s partnership goes back at least to 1998, though French bassist Joëlle Léandre, Swiss drummer Fritz Hauser and his countryman, tenor and soprano saxophonist Urs Leimgruber earlier played together in a trio formation. Léandre has also partnered American pianist Marilyn Crispell in other circumstances. LUGANO germinates slowly as if it was a blossom slowly unfolding.

Speed up the camera work, like a Walt Disney nature film showing flowers blooming in seconds, and simultaneously crank up the volume, and you replicate the other CD. A first-time recording in this configuration, it hooks up British tenor saxophonist Paul Dunmall and bassist Paul Rogers – two-quarters of the Mujician band – with German pianist Alexander Von Schlippenbach, whose usual reed partner is Evan Parker. Extra man is New York-born, London-based drummer Tony Bianco. Considering Bianco is probably the only percussionist to have backed blues-rocker Edgar Winter, rock’n’roller Chuck Berry and pianist Keith Tippett – Mujician’s leader – he’s obvious up for anything.

And up he has to be in this fast company. The four hit the ground running – like Israeli commandos during the Entebbe raid – and don’t let up during the two, more-than- 29 minutes and almost-35 minute, selections that make up VESUVIUS.

From the beginning Von Schlippenbach kinetically chords cadenzas on the piano keys plus stretching and scraping the internal mechanism, as Dunmall honks, smears, slurs and spits glottal timbres. As the saxman continuously outputs altissimo trills and honks plus tart split tones, Rogers involves himself with patterned strums and their echoes, as well as harmonic finger-picking, done a cappella. Midway through the first piece the pianist’s cascading pedal-propelled fills are backed by cymbal slaps and layered flams and ruffs from the drummer

On both tracks Dunmall stretches and varies the tempos as the backing from Rogers – with whom he sometimes plays in duo – moves from strumming and bridge rattling to rubber-band like plucks. Once Von Schlippenbach sets up a combination of external organic melody and scraping and stopping of the internal string nodes, the staccato movement brings forth irregular arco pulsing from the bassist and a splayed vibrato from the saxman. Although the pianist is interconnecting chords and notes like a metronome, he’s knowledgeable enough about keyboard dynamics that each note is outlined and voiced properly no matter how quickly he plays. By the final variation of the second tune, as Rogers’ bass notes rise from cross-sticking fury caused by the pressure on Bianco’s kit, they form a level ostinato on which Dunmall’s flutter-tongued and pitch-vibrated improvisations meet up with the adagio ricochets from the piano’s stopped internal strings and outward tremolo notes.

Evolving with as many silences and pregnant pauses as notes, LUGANO’s first section may be almost 32 minutes long, but it’s likely that the band on VESUVIUS sounds as many notes in five minutes of either of its improvisations as Quartet Noir does on this, the CD’s lengthiest track. Throughout the Noir four seem to rely on timbres that are sensed as much as heard.

The overriding sonic at the beginning is a splintered whistle from Leimgruber’s reed that connects organically with sul ponticello and skittering bass movements and agitato drum rumbles, rim shots and bounces. With the sideband signals vibrating as much as the expressed textures, the track nearly concludes before a recognizable reed arpeggio is heard. Although Crispell strums the odd chord, her contribution is so low frequency as to seem unvoiced.

Throughout, the four sometimes reconfigure themselves into two duos – drums and piano plus sax and bass – until Part III. Finally the scrapes and stops on cymbal tops and cascading piano glissandi that have infrequently appeared before, transform from disconnected tones into melody. Nut-cracker-like pops from the drummer and Madwoman-like, speaking-in-tongues from Léandre suddenly solidify. As the bassist harmonizes in a cracked bel-canto voice along with louder, serpentine split tones from Leimgruber, Hauser spatters beats from his cymbals and Crispell contributes chordal excursions externally and from inside strings that sound as if they’re propelling cymbals placed on top of them. Then everything fades away.

Within a little more than one week in October 2004 two methods of modern quartet improv were exposed on these discs. Each is equally valid.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Vesuvius: 1. Salamander 2. Leviathan

Personnel: Vesuvius: Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone); Alexander Von Schlippenbach (piano); Paul Rogers (7-string A.L.L. bass); Tony Bianco (drums)

Track Listing: Lugano: 1. Lugano (suite en 3 movements)

Personnel: Lugano: Urs Leimgruber (tenor and soprano saxophones); Marilyn Crispell, (piano); Joëlle Léandre (bass); Fritz Hauser (drums)

May 29, 2006

PAUL DUNMALL

In Your Shell Like
EMANEM 4111

Neo-cons and other tin-eared types who harp on Free Music’s so-called break with tradition, should listen carefully to the first track on this CD.

They want tradition? Here’s the sounds of two British musicians creating top rank improvisations using instruments that cast the saxophone and drum sets favored by the neo-boppers into the realm of recent novelties. London-based Paul Dunmall confines his playing to the border bagpipes, while Brussels-based Stevie Wishart extracts unique timbres from the hurdy-gurdy. If racket and clamor are avant-garde, then musicians playing the Scottish and Irish pipes and the portable mechanical viol have been bizarre ultramodernists for at least two centuries.

Dunmall, who usually – and elsewhere on the CD – plays soprano and tenor saxophones in bands led by the likes of pianist Keith Tippet, and Wishart, who is also a violinist with pianist Chris Burns’ Ensemble, aren’t predictable players on their traditional axes. As a matter of fact, there are points on “Shells and Other Things” that the wavering pitch vibrations could easily be linked to synthesized tones.

Throughout, the reedist’s steady spew of air, often circularly breathed, is decorated with oscillating arpeggios from Wishart’s rosined bow. If Dunmall’s style on the chanter appears to have the same velocity and elasticity as his sax work, then Wishart’s stopped strings produce the sort of sul ponticello notes that resonate as if they were looped through a sequencer. Not only that, but she can produce tones as wide as you find from any accordion, and his flutter-toned interface can also be as stretched or as compact as if it came from a saxophone reed.

IN YOUR SHELL LIKE isn’t some trendy example of medieval jazz fusion either. Once they’re joined by percussionist and long-time Evan Parker associate Paul Lytton, the three merely output sounds they feel to the best of their talents, on whatever instruments.

Before that however there’s “Nothing To Do with Shells”, a tenor saxophone-drums duet that could be characterized as the CD’s jazz track. Using the primeval jazz instrument, Dunmall double- and triple-tongues, honks and snorts. Meanwhile Lytton rolls, bounces and rumbles, but shows his BritImprov allegiance by spending as much time evenly tapping his cymbals and a wood block. Then, as the saxophonist spins out multiphonics that grow, combine and split, Lytton appears to be heaving an elongated chain up and down the stairs. As a prelude to Free Jazz snorting and honking, Dunmall introduces a trenchant buzz that makes his point forcefully, until Lytton’s rustling cymbals and chain links join him in double counterpoint. Lighter-toned than previously, Dunmall’s octave runs seem almost pastoral when linked to Lytton’s single, sharp cymbal chime.

More than 16 minutes in length, “The Ears Have It” mixes both traditions, with Dunmall playing bagpipes and soprano saxophone at different times. Rigid string plucks and stops plus floor-rolled unselected cymbals and bell responses back the saxophonist’s twitters. With Wishart creating an altissimo drone, and Lytton ratcheting rebounds, Dunmall switches to bagpipes, so that circular breathing ululations from the chanter are supplemented by harsh whirr and the drone undercurrents from the hurdy-gurdy. Adding an additional buzz, Lytton wets a finger and strokes it across a drum head. Climax is reached as the reedist ripples and surges those fully-formed chanter tones with the bellows as the other instruments evaporate into silence, except for the occasional snare bang and muted string vibration.

Some of the best improv you’ll ever hear on 20th, 19th or 16th century instruments is right here.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Shells and Other Things 2. Nothing To Do with Shells 3. It’s In Your Ear 4. The Ears Have It 5. In Your Shell Like

Personnel: Paul Dunmall (border bagpipes*, soprano [tracks 1, 3, 4, 5) and tenor saxophone#); Stevie Wishart, hurdy-gurdy (tracks 1, 4, 5); Paul Lytton, percussion (all tracks but 1)

September 12, 2005

PAUL DUNMALL MOKSHA BIG BAND

I Wish You Peace
Cuneiform RUNE 203

Unquestionably a 50th birthday present to himself – and his listeners – there’s a tendency to hear I WISH YOU PEACE as an attempt by British saxophonist Paul Dunmall to sum up his musical experiences after a half century of life. Yet it’s a much a reflection of the present and future as the past.

Writing the three-part suite at a time when the war in Iraq was in full battle mode, Dunmall’s spiritual preoccupations seem a bit overcome by bellicose motifs in this recording, initially premiered on BBC Radio 3. Still the title reflects the reedman’s desire for humankind to achieve a non-war-like serenity.

As for the band’s name – Moksha is a Hindu word meaning the final liberation of the soul. It references the sort of transcendental conscientious Dunmall and others first experienced in the 1960s and have migrated to the 21st Century. Like certain orchestral showcases for saxophonists recorded at the time by Pharoah Sanders, John Coltrane and Archie Shepp, “I Wish You Peace” is very much a concerto for Paul, with the ever-inventive saxophonist taking the greatest amount of solo space.

The most prominent secondary voices belong to Dunmall’s associates in small groups. The rest of Mujician, bassist Paul Rogers, drummer Tony Levin and especially - pianist Keith Tippett make the most obvious contributions, as do Philip Gibbs on guitar and autoharp, drummer Mark Sanders and guitarist John Adams who often play in the saxophonist’s trio. Giving Dunmall the space to improvise, conductor Brian Irvine is along to direct the horns: Gethin Liddington and David Priesman on trumpets; Hilary Jeffery, Paul Rutherford and Chris Bridges on trombones; plus Simon Picard and Howard Cottle on tenor saxophones.

Part Two makes the most use of the other players. Parting the smeary horn and brass hocketing, Tippett offers up a brief improv that bounces between a montuno section and near bop, while Dunmall’s concise tenor statements unfold on top of bounces and flams from Levin and Sanders. Later, either Gethin Liddington or David Priesman trade snaking restrained trumpet lines with variegated, cross dynamics from the pianist. Hummingbird swift chromatic runs and slurred high-pitched variation are then exhibited by one of the brassmen, almost a cappella. Subsequently Gibbs or Adams moves up front for Wes Montgomery-like thick octave runs. When the guitarist’s output turns more abstract with counterlines and thumb pops, Dunmall, who has been involved in offbeat theme development throughout, turns to exploded multiphonics, as the two turn into a 21st Century Jim Hall and Sonny Rollins duo. Massed horn interludes sneak in and out of the audio picture just behind the two, climaxing in unison dissonance.

Part Three’s finale is somewhat similar, with seemingly every instrumentalist twisting, turning and screaming at top volume before the piece is cut off. Earlier, however, this cut has exhibited the most 1960s-like echoes. Tippet slathers prepared piano stops from inside his instrument, one of the guitarists produce a vague sitar-like tone and the section’s beginning is almost electronic, featuring a droning strings section with a ponticello bowed bass line on top.

Comparable to his work on Part Two and unlike the warm, Coleman Hawkins-like tenor tones he floats in the first part, Dunmall’s solos are in 1960s mode as well. Howling and pitch shifting, he works his way from screaming altissimo to the bottom of the bow snorts with almost Tranean intensity using smears, doits and glottal punctuation. Along with these staccato flutter tonguing, the section features high-frequency piano comping, chiming and shuffling extended chromatic guitar lines, and times when the other horns combine step by step into a unison climatic harmonic interface.

With textures and timbres often felt as well as heard, Dunmall’s three-part suite manages to replicate the cacophony of war in such a way that the individual expression of the composition gives hope that peace will arrive. What a birthday celebration it is.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. I Wish You Peace Part One 2. I Wish You Peace Part Two 3. I Wish You Peace Part Three

Personnel: Gethin Liddington, David Priesman (trumpets); Hilary Jeffery, Paul Rutherford, Chris Bridges (trombones); Paul Dunmall (soprano and tenor saxophones); Simon Picard, Howard Cottle (tenor saxophones); Keith Tippett (piano); John Adams (guitar); Philip Gibbs (guitar and autoharp); Paul Rogers (bass); Tony Levin and Mark Sanders (drums); Brian Irvine (conductor)

April 4, 2005

WILLIAM PARKER/AD PEIJNENBURG

Brooklyn Calling
Dino CD 32004

PAUL DUNMALL/PAUL ROGERS
Awareness Response
Emanem 4101

Familiarity and novelty are the two strategies that can work equally well in improvised music. That’s why CDs with almost the same personnel can sound so different.

Consider the depth of penetrating understanding that goes into the duo session by two Englishmen, multi-reedman Paul Dunmall and bassist Paul Rogers, and contrast it with the interactive first-time meeting between American bassist William Parker and Dutch reedist Ad Peijnenburg. Similar on the surface, both discs define cooperative duo playing. But both arrive at that concordance differently.

Longtime members of Mujician with pianist Keith Tippett and drummer Tony Levin, as well as mates in larger bands led by Dunmall and Tippett, the reedist and bassist first recorded as a duo in 1988. Giving Rogers an opportunity to show off his A.L.L. 6-string bass, each track on AWARENESS RESPONSE features Dunmall on a different horn: border bagpipes, tenor or soprano saxophone.

In contrast, except for one track playing sopranino, Eindhoven, Holland-based Peijnenburg sticks to his main horn, the baritone on the other five tracks. Founder of the international saxophone sextet The Six Winds, which has included Danish altoist John Tchicai and Washington, D.C. tenor man Andrew White among others, Peijnenburg’s other main band features South African percussionists Thebe Lipere and Louis Moholo.

With no strings attached to his improv conception since the mid-1970s, the Dutchman altered his game plan and toured and recorded with Parker for the first time late last year. Someone whose range of activities have included partnerships with nearly every major contemporary saxman from New York’s Charles Gayle to Chicago’s Fred Anderson, Parker was an easy fit. As a first-time duo session, though, his and Peijnenburg’s playing is a lot more cheerily anarchistic than Dunmall and Rogers’ methodical sound triptych,

Featuring his main axe -- the tenor -- on the second track, Dunmall honks out scattered tone patterns as Rogers responds with guitar-like flat picking that glides from the centre up to the tuning pegs. When the saxman moves into reed-biting, squealing and squeaking with an intensity vibrato, Rogers follows suit, producing banjo-like flailing, rapid runs and careful finger picks. As the tenorist rasps out irregular pulses, circular trills and obbligatos, the bassist creates an accompanying pattern filled with double and triple stopping and circular strums. Using string snaps, slurred fingering and staccato stops, Rogers ends with a crescendo of rotating thumb picking that could have fit in with such British folk-rock bands of the 1970s as Pentangle -- if it played free improv.

Throughout both men seem to be playing all the time, and this carries onto “Pressure Response”, Dunmall’s bagpipe feature and “Precious Response” for soprano saxophone. On the later, under-the-breath trills and fibrous obbligatos soon lighten as Rogers creates voluminous, abrasive spiccato tones. Once the arco bowing take on locomotive power with ponticello accents, the saxist exposes trilling ghost notes that soon meld with Rogers’ output. When Dunmall’s swelling smears and twitters get louder and faster, they’re pushed aside by triple stopped basso and forced intermittent timbres from Rogers that are as diffuse as they are continuous.

Arm-operated bellows for his south Scotland bagpipes give Dunmall viscous waves of sound on “Pressure Response”, to which Rogers responds col legno and sul ponticello. With one set of responses woody and the retorts booming as well, the textures become almost too thick here. Finally the bassist surmounts the vibrating, buzzing tones with an impressionistically tinged legato line that soars above the pipes’ pressure.

Reed-biting and kazoo-like timbres make Peijnenburg’s sopranino saxophone playing stand out on “Streetwise”, even on the freewheeling improvisations that make up BROOKLYN CALLING. As a matter of fact, quick chirping twists and vibrated flutter-tongued turns so take up the circus music reminiscent melody, that Parker’s strumming almost fades into the background.

This isn’t the case on other tracks such as “Many Things”, where by the last third the bassman’s ponticello tones and vocalized shouts of “where’d he go” presage harsher, sharper and spikier bent notes from the bull fiddle and some tandem string stretching and syllable scatting. The piece begins with tough, repeating Aylerian glossolalia from the baritone as Parker constructs a bouncing pulsation beneath it. When Peijnenburg introduces irregular pitches and flutter tonguing, the bassist, pizzicato, begins accelerating the tempo in miniature motions so that it’s soon moving one-and-one-half speed quicker than before. Martial reveille, doits and growls enter the air from the sax, which leads to Parker’s spiky scatting.

“Clear Stray” is almost 15 minutes of elongated wind tunnel exhortations from baritone sax, while “Notes from Heaven” offers nearly 20 minutes of mellow, subterranean baritone lines. On the first the saxman uses the trick of creating a bugle-like martial anthem and wriggles the notes every which way as he plays mid-range variations on the theme. His snarling repeated note pattern start to sound like “Mad Lad” saxophonist Leo Parker’s seminal blues-bop from the 1940s as bassist Parker -- no relation -- responds with bouncing, staccato arco lines. On the second piece, the bassist moves from sul tasto to widely-spaced plunks to constrained walking bass, the better to deal with the baritonist’s output, which interspaces snorts, deep, metallic resonating body tube vibrations and renal constraint.

“Pretty Easy”, the concluding track, even shows the two operating in an avant-garde balladic mode -- sort of an updated Harry-Carney-meets-Milt-Hinton fashion.

When Peijnenburg’s subterranean tones dissolve into pure breaths at the end, the newly minted duo have proven they can handle any time and tempo and make it interesting -- as do the two Pauls on the other CD.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Awareness: 1. Pressure Response* 2. Priceless Response+ 3. Precious Response#

Personnel: Awareness: Paul Dunmall (border bagpipes*, tenor+ and soprano# saxophones); Paul Rogers (A.L.L. 6-string bass)

Track Listing: Brooklyn: 1. Notes from Heaven 2. Many Things 3. Streetwise* 4. Clear Stray 5. Pretty Easy

Personnel: Brooklyn: Ad Peijnenburg (sopranino* and baritone saxophone); William Parker (bass)

August 9, 2004

PAUL DUNMALL/PAUL ROGERS/KEVIN NORTON

Go Forth Duck
CIMP #296

PRESENT TENSE WITH PAUL DUNMALL
Infinity Calling
Foxy Productions Foxy 203

Fusion, jazz’s equivalent of the f-word, has its negative reputation because of the bombastic technique exhibited by most of its practitioners, especially those from the rock side of the fence. So when a quick-witted, almost highbrow CD like INFINITY CALLING comes along, you’re loath to describe it as a fusion effort, even though the three members of the Bristol, England band Present Tense don’t shy away from the label.

Not that anything from guitarist Philip Gibbs, percussionist Marco Anderson and synthesizer whiz Ben Williams is particularly restrained, but the three are aided and abetted by the saxophones of Paul Dunmall, one of that country’s most accomplished improvisers in any idiom. He confirms that reputation on GO FORTH DUCK, a non-electric, non-fusion effort whose three overlong selections match Dunmall on reeds and bagpipes with long-time associate Paul Rogers on six-string bass and American Kevin Norton on vibes, percussion and drums.

On his solo sessions, with his octet and as part of the co-op Mujician with Rogers, the reedist has shown that he can play at great length without lacking ideas or stamina. He has to on the quartet CD to hold his own among a panoply of electric and percussion instruments.

Gibbs, who often works with Dunmall in lower-key situations, shows that he can emit as many fuzztones and distortions as any ProgRock idol, strum with yeoman’s strength in the rhythm guitarist’s roll, and create funky bass-guitar-like vamps when needed. Distorted, spaceship invader lines are often his stock in trade, especially when they meet up with polyrhythmic rumbles, smacks and rebounds from Anderson.

Someone whose background includes stints in rock bands, the Happy End Big Band, as a session player for pop and Bhangra dates and as house writer for an ad agency, the drummer easily moves from tempo shifting output to more abstract rumbles and pops. His triggered loops and sonic landscapes provide many of the panoramic background textures, as do Williams’ synthesizers and sequencers.

Not content with relying on burbling synthesizer washes and electronic wiggles to decorate and frame the compositions, Williams uses the organ settings of his instruments to solo as well. The results are varied. Sometimes the Morse code pulsation remains in cushioning mode; other times, as on “Augermentative”, he provides Jimmy Smith-like, soulful pulsation, letting out his pedal stops and slurring away.

This casts Dunmall, on tenor, in the soulful Stanley Turrentine role, but since the saxman at one point traded blues licks with Johnny “Guitar” Watson, he’s perfectly at hone, double tonguing and smearing -- letting his solo spin out into snorts and a bouncy counter motif. Gibbs contributes chicken scratching rhythm work and Anderson busily paradiddles and press rolls.

Introducing Brian Augur-type rumbling organ lines, Williams and the others reorganize the nearly 17-minute title track around distorted lead guitar licks, heavy on the wah-wah pedal, plus steady two-handed, martial-style drum work. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- the thunder and lightning exploding behind him, Dunmall is unperturbed, growling whole notes out of middle register, unspooling tough tones, and squealing his way up to altissimo and shrill pitches above that, while sneaking into every crevice of the tune.

Present Tense isn’t all ghost town whistles, lowing Pharoah Sanders-like honks, backbeats and sizzle cymbal resonation, though. Anderson’s reverberating Tibetan bowl and unselected cymbals, extended with loops and cymbal scratches are front and centre on “C-Thing”, for instance. Soon legato tenor sax tones, swoops and obbligatos succeed those sounds, as percussive pings and accents provide the backdrop. Gibbs outputs echoing fills as Dunmall flutter tongues in front of a deep cushion of organ tones. Finally, as the saxman twitters and overblows, bowl percussion and circuitous keyboard tones return.

With this CD a fine -- can one say -- fusion effort, it will be interesting to see how Present Tense fares when Dunmall’s mixture of rubato dexterity and imperturbable smoothness is replaced by another soloist’s input.

Exposing another part of his personality on the other CD, Dunmall’s hard bopper-like ability to play all night, is put to a test on the title track. At more than 36½-minutes, it’s longer than most hard-bop LPs. However, he and his confreres manage to make the piece seemingly fly by in an instant, with no sense of boredom, repetition or overreaching. Still the mind-meld is so pronounced on this track, that it puts the other two numbers into the also-ran category.

Beginning with a moderato, shuffled arco bass line and clattering cymbals, a clear tenor line soon sinuously adds the timbres of a musette. A dusting of vibe mallet tones allows the buzzing of Rogers six-string to provide the bass line, as Dunmall smears and trills in coloratura range. Before the reedist turns to split tones, the bassist has gone from ponticello motion to exposing deep tones, as Norton, on drums, flams and bounces

Bustling with the same speed and energy he brings to INFINITY CALLING, the saxman then double tongues and vibrates new lines as he works his way around the reed, adding a grating, kazoo-like tone. With the bassist moving back-and-forth and side-to-side on his axe, Norton chimes in with metallic side shots and ride cymbal shakes as Dunmall extends and intensifies his reed patterns.

Moving from a bouncing spiccato pulse, Rogers works on the space beneath his instrument’s bridge producing deadened, shifting semitones. As the strings are both pulled and scraped, the percussionist offers up rim shots and tiny mallet tips on metal keys plus rolling snare and ride cymbal motions. These encourage Dunmall to introduce Trane-like overblowing. Soon the grainy smears become so jumbled and siren-like that they start to resemble some of Arthur Doyle’s more obtuse outpourings, like a man muttering to himself.

Ultimately the piece reaches a crescendo with thumping double stopping from the bass, flashing gyrations from rim tops and vibes from the percussionist and the saxman producing quacking granulated lines and squealing tongue slaps.

“Come Back Weirdness Day”, with its steady arco pulse and Uillean pipe bellows serves as intermission until the regrouping on the almost 24-minute “I Am Not a van (Ofocals)”. Alive with speedy bowing from Rogers, pitch vibrations from Dunmall and glissandos from Norton’s vibes, it still can’t measure up to the tour-de-force on track one. Perhaps it’s because the saxist plays whole passages in squeaky altissimo, that the bassist at one point sounds as if he’s playing the introductory riff to “Bag’s Groove” and that the drummer seems to be attacking his kit none too gently.

Granted that exceptional skills are on show, though, with Rogers, for example, simultaneously squealing his top strings and dragging his bow across the bottom ones so that single-handedly he becomes a string quartet. Yet the overall impression left is of motifs unraveling at a modest pace, with all the playing, including Dunmall’s doits, growls and smears a touch unfocused.

Probably by playing it in two separate sitting, one for track one, the other for the remaining two. GO FORTH DUCK will be more memorable. As it is, both CDs confirm Dunmall’s talents in disparate settings. They also confirm that done right, neither fusion nor abstract are four letter words.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Infinity: 1. Yo Bloop! 2. Infinity Calling 3. Augermentative 4, An Act of Mindless Charity 5. C-Thing 6. Memory Refit 7. Ring Fence

Personnel: Infinity: Paul Dunmall (tenor and soprano saxophones); Ben Williams (synthesizers and sequencers); Philip Gibbs (fretless and standard electric guitars); Marco Anderson (drums, percussion, Tibetan bowls, Reaktor loops and sonic landscapes)

Track Listing: Go: 1. Go Forth Duck 2. Come Back Weirdness Day 3. I Am Not a van (Ofocals)

Personnel: Go: Paul Dunmall (soprano and tenor saxophones and border bagpipes); Paul Rogers (A.L.L. 6-string bass); Kevin Norton (drums, marimba and percussion)

July 12, 2004

PAUL DUNMALL

Something Normal
DUNS Limited Edition double 010

Ever since Fred Guy turned from the banjo to the guitar in Duke Ellington’s orchestra about 1933, the possibilities for banjo in post Trad jazz have been severely limited, or to be truthful, non-existent. Guitarist Chuck Wayne did record a bop-banjo track in the early 1960s -- you could look it up -- but generally if a banjo appeared on a jazz date, so did the New Orleans repertoire.

However British guitarists John Adams -- not to be confused with the American composers of the same name -- and Philip Gibbs don’t miss an opportunity to flail away at the what is probably the only indigenous African-American instrument during this two- CD set of collaborations with woodwind player Paul Dunmall. Adams, who has been part of Dunmall’s working trio, also plays both acoustic and electric guitars and mandolin plus banjo here, while Gibbs, who has recorded duo, trio and quartet sessions with the reed man, solos on both type of guitars and ukulele as well as the banjo. Not to be outdone, Dunmall, best-known as one-quarter of the Mujician group, trots out his flute, bagpipes, soprano and swannee saxophone, preznophone and moxeno -- whatever the last three might be -- on his side of the equation.

Furthermore, you shouldn’t expect any Earl Scruggs-meets-Steve Lacy style tunes here, although there are times that sort of soprano saxophone and banjo operating in improv time concept comes into play. However over the course of 16 tracks, the three men in duos and trios attempt to come up with as many different playing combinations as can be imagined from this SUV load of instruments.

There are times when Gibbs and Adams playing together seem positively conventional, strumming away like Herb Ellis meets Barney Kessel or any other of the so-called Great Guitar meetings, following each other like squirrels chasing around a tree, and prodding Dunmall to moderate into mid-range his soprano tone. One another track the saxist produces some ethereal flute work, probably reminiscent of his stint with harpist Alice Coltrane, while a combination of guitar body pats and string extension allows the others to reference the sounds of sarods, tablas and other South Indian instruments. An exercise in cross-cultural approximation, it, like many of the other tracks, points out that instruments’ limitations are only what you make of them. Nevertheless another tune seems to be made up in equal portions of straightforward guitar strumming and an echoing slide whistle tone -- maybe that’s the sound of the preznophone or the moxeno.

Shorter guitar interludes of two sorts appear among some of the extended improvs. Imagine the folksy tablature demanded during the more self-conscious phrase of the 1960s and 1970s British folk revival and you’ll get an idea of what goes down there, sort of Brownie & Sonny meets Davey Graham. Other pieces are awash with bluesy steel string pulls, bottleneck whines and a quasi-psychedelic wash effect straight out of what could have been the Yardbirds setlist. On some tracks one guitarist will take one role and the other glom onto another style. Considering that he played on Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s AIN’T THAT A BITCH LP back in 1976, these blues-based experiments probably don’t bother the saxophonist.

The best parts of the session, though, come when the players head down into serious improvisation. Sometimes sounding as if he’s blowing cross wise across his flute, Dunmall mostly concentrates on a soprano saxophone tone that ranges from a fire siren shriek to a more modulated, deeper multiphonics. Tongue slaps and reed biting at supersonic speeds also spurs the plectrumists to put aside their inner George Formbys or Jeff Becks. Instead one or both will concentrate on intervals, strumming, picking and exploring the strings below the bridge and in the guitar’s neck, produce hollow body percussion and the sounds of something that could be duct tape being stretched across the studio.

All in all, while an interesting session SOMETHING NORMAL (sic) may be too much of a good thing. With CDRs so economical to produce, excesses as well as essential music get preserved for posterity. Perhaps a better route would have been to create two single CDs -- one with Dunmall and the two guitarists, the other of string duets.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Disc A: 1. Deprived of oxygen 2. Fens to the right, boilerman 3. Hey! He’s eating my teeth 4. Disturbing events 5. I’ll drink to that 6. Discussions with an astral being 7. Full moon creeper 8. Beautiful young lady

Disc B: 1. Come on in the seats are filthy 2. Psycho snuffling 3. The boyman who ate a whole sweet 4. Normal past, out future 5. True phenomenon 6. The ambrosia of kuppaswamy 7. Shiva's gift 8. The final wedge

Personnel: Paul Dunmall (soprano and swannee saxophone, flute, preznophone, moxeno, bagpipes); Philip Gibbs (acoustic, electric guitars, banjo, mandolin); John Adams (acoustic, electric guitars, banjo, ukulele)

April 12, 2002

MUJICIAN

Spacetime
Cuneiform Rune 162

Together for almost a decade and a half, the sound of the British quartet Mujician, is, if anything more exhilarating than it has ever been.

Working within the instrumental parametres of the standard post-bop combo -- piano, bass, drums and saxophone -- the band situates itself in a space midway between what could be called BritImprov and American energy music. In other words, while some sections of the more than 72½ minutes of music on this disc are given over to microscopic instrumental evisceration through extended technique and emphasis, others spew out molten-hot slabs of intense, protracted, multi-faceted free jazz assertions.

Also you could say that there’s bit of false advertising in the compositions’ timing. Although the disc purports to be a record of the group improvising in 15 small sections, none over 10 minutes long, aurally the pieces combine into two long explorations of about 31½ and 39½ minutes respectively. Not that this makes much of a difference, because the raison d’être of Mujician, since its birth in 1988, has been how seamlessly one tune flows into the next. And this disc is no exception.

Consider the seven sections of the title track, for instance, as at one point Paul Dunmall’s sonorous soprano saxophone travels from the Far East to the Middle East. First it resembles ceremonial flute played in Oriental court which is mixed with an echoing gong sound from drummer Tony Levin, then a few minutes later vocalizes muezzin-like cries that join pianist Keith Tippett’s modal piano chords.

With his playing quiet and well modulated in certain sections, at times you’re caught by surprise when the sax man starts duetting with himself -- quickly tossing out one line and almost immediately answering it. On tenor, a solo that begins with key pops and slap tonguing can turn seriously virtuosic, as he uses circular breathing to boomerang his tones backwards as if they’d just hit the walls of a squash court. Later, when the saxophonist holds a note for an inordinate length of time, the drummer uses his palms to suggest tabla-like sounds on his snare, as the pianist alternates repeated keyboard clusters and inside piano explorations. Not to be outdone, throughout bassist Paul Rogers either uses elongated finger gestures to dexterously speed up and down his instrument’s neck or turns to pure power chording, plucking and tugging accompaniment from its deepest regions.

Moving from pacific spiritualism to modal frenzy and back again appears to be little more than a stroll along the garden path for this band.

“Exquisitely Woven Spiritual Communication”, offers more of the same, which each “mujician” given space to shine. Veteran of solo piano concerts, a studio membership in King Crimson and numberless collaborations over the past 30 years, here Tippett goes hyperpiano specialists like Denman Maroney one better, producing fleet, quirky string slides as if he was playing a harpsichord. Elsewhere he appears to be burrowing away inside the instrument’s delicate mechanism when he’s not strumming the strings and sounding the keys at the same time.

Most senior improviser by almost a decade, Levin had prime mainstream experience with the likes of tenor man Zoot Sims and flugelhornist Art Farmer before committing himself fully to free music. Here, for the sake of the instant composition, he bangs out a military tattoo at one point and what could be the resonance of a kettle drum at another, contrasting them with barely audible percussion underscoring and near-ceremonial cymbalism.

In tandem, there are times the four can create their own U.K. rendering of the classic John Coltrane quartet. Tippett’s swirling, modal piano references McCoy Tyner; Rogers, who is better-known for having worked alongside the likes of saxophonists Lol Coxhill, and Elton Dean, than American freeboppers, alternately walks, strums and bows like a Jimmy Garrison clone. Meanwhile Dunmall, who actually did accompany Alice Coltrane at one point, spews out reed flotsam and jetsam like Trane at his most experimental; while Levin, who grew up with the style, becomes as fast and furious as Elvin Jones.

But that’s where the comparison, breaks down however. Rogers, who often uses a stand up six-string bass is more supple than Garrison. Levin, who makes it apparent in other contexts, offers more than just Jones’s raw power. Tippett is, paradoxically, at times either a lighter-toned or more robust sounding keyboardist than Tyner. And Dunmall has his own method of reed, mouthpiece and body emphasis.

So don’t fasten on American models. Pick up this CD for Tippett’s two handed pianism, which flow from European classicism as well as jazz, and Dunmall’s range of honks and individual sheets of sound, to name two of its virtues.

Quartet or not, it’s no second coming of any other combo, but a new example of Mujician music pure and simple. That’s what makes listening worth your while.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Spacetime 1. - 7.; Exquisitely Woven Spiritual Communication 8 - 15.

Personnel: Paul Dunmall (soprano and tenor saxophone); Keith Tippett (piano); Paul Rogers (bass); Tony Levin (drums)

March 22, 2002

PAUL DUNMALL/DAVE ALEXANDER/TIM WELLS

Live in London
DUNS Limited Edition DLE 0015

One of the busiest free jazz saxophonists in Europe, Londoner Paul Dunmall, like many other musicians, seems to have spent the past few years recording every gig he could. Now that he has his own label, the aptly named DUNS Limited Edition, he’s finally able to give wider currency to exceptional performances like the two on this CD.

No practitioner of the almost clichéd, British breath-control school of reed playing, Dunmall makes his mark in such ensembles as the cooperative Mujician band the London Jazz Composers Orchestra as an upright, straightahead player, whose hairy-chested overblowing doesn’t neglect volume and vibrato.

This session, made up of two overlong (almost 38 minutes ands just over 40 minutes) pieces, recorded four months apart almost 10 years ago at a small London club proves this. Seconded by the forceful drumming of Dave Alexander -- all cymbals and snares -- and what seem to be bassist Tim Wells’ fingers of iron, the performance could be even older. Unlike some self-consciously European example of BritImprov, it’s unabashedly an extension of the tradition of energy music that grew up in the 1960s and whose benchmarks remain the jaw-clenching spasm of sounds made by tenor men John Coltrane and Albert Ayler.

Completely his own man, Dunmall ranges throughout these works in many time signatures and tempos. At time he conjures up the image of a canny shopper in a market town fair. He weighs and measures different notes, tones, slurs, pitches, phrases during the course of his mammoth solos, toying with some from different angles and at diverse speeds, discarding some, reshaping others until he’s satisfied. One minute he’ll construct a passage out of screaming, elevated glossolalia, other times he’ll measure out a blanket of extended mid-range notes. It’s a credit to the bassist and drummer that they can follow him. And while each gets a bit of solo space, it’s the saxophonist’s show all the way.

Dunmall has released so many impressive CDs recently, on his own and with other bands, that one ends up with the embarrassment of having to say why this excellence is different than another excellence. It isn’t really.

Oh, on the first track Dunmall is supposed to be improvising on the C-melody saxophone, an antique dance band staple that was pushed out the jazz spotlight when Coleman Hawkins asserted the might of the tenor in the late 1920s. But to be honest the creation doesn’t sound much different than on the other track when he’s supposed to be playing tenor and there seems to be no diminishment in his playing.

Whatever the axe, Dunmall is definitely in the lineage of tenor masters like Hawkins and Trane and LIVE IN LONDON just proves it one more time.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1.What rumours? 2. These rumours

Personnel: Paul Dunmall (C Melody saxophone, tenor saxophone); Tim Wells (bass); Dave Alexander (drums)

January 8, 2002

PAUL DUNMALL/JOHN EDWARDS/JOHN BUTCHER

Hit And Run
FMP CD 116

PAUL DUNMALL/PAUL ROGERS
Alien Art
DUNS Limited Edition 008

Despite equal billing for all three musicians, except for its final five minutes, HIT AND RUN isn't a trio session at all. Instead it features bassist John Edwards doing yeoman service in duets with two of his British countrymen who happen to be some of the most accomplished reedists on the planet: John Butcher and Paul Dunmall.

Each of the meetings, however, is as different as the bearded, heavyset Dunmall and slimmer, clean-shaven Butcher are from one another. Dunmall's "Gaulstones" is a gaudy free-for-all featuring him on two different bagpipes and soprano saxophone; while Butcher's "Rhymes" is divided into four shorter rhymes, with him moving effortlessly from soprano and tenor saxophone and back again. What they share in common is excellence.

Dunmall's bizarre title is a reference to the circumstances of the duet. Edwards was pressed into service, after the reedman's regular duo partner, bassist Paul Rogers, was laid up in his home in France following a gall stone attack. Rogers was on his feet though, nearly two years later in Bristol, England for the concert that makes up ALIEN ART.

On the first CD, interestingly, enough, the bagpipe ends up being the most sonorous instrument on its title track and only trio outing. A low-caloric desert after the man-sized, more than 35 minute helpings of woodwinds and bass than proceed it, the piece features Dunmall tooting away on pipes, Butcher's warbling split tones and Edwards using guitar fingerings to match them both in fervor. Resolving itself as quickly as the incident it's named for, at the finale the high intensity track almost develops into a wee Scottish reel.

Earlier on, Dunmall suggests what would have happened if circular breathing had been adopted as enthusiastically by traditional Scottish musicians as improvisers. Certainly the instrument's chanter and bag gives him a lot more leeway for the almost infinite technique he had developed for the pipes over the proceeding decade.

To counter this virtuosity, Edwards appears to be calling on not only his playing experience with multiphonics maven Evan Parker, but earlier percussive methodology developed in art-rock bands. Like American William Parker, he seems to prefer the darker, more threatening bass regions, either sawing away with his bow or yanking the string hard enough to create basso overtones.

Not likely to be mistaken for a member of the Black Watch who limits himself to "Amazing Grace", Dunmall often suggests such non-Western instruments as the shehnai and the musette in his playing, creating two melodies at once, the first with the chanter and the second with the drone. Questions sometime arise as to whether a sound originates from this distinctive pipe command or from Edwards' percussive playing.

The bassist does get a section to express himself first arco then pizzicato, but only after the bagpipes have held one tone seemingly ad infinitum. That bull fiddle solo is also a prelude to Dunmall bringing out his soprano, which in this context suddenly sounds so establishment, even though he introduces double-timing, slap-tonguing and liquid sprints up and down the horn.

There's no mistaking that Butcher is playing saxophones on the almost 37 minutes of the next track, but his technical mastery of the soprano and the tenor is such that sometimes you can't pinpoint a pitch to its origin. Dissonant to the point that you're always conscious that he's playing a metal instrument, Butcher completely controls the sound centre, using flutters, reed bites, slap tonguing and even duck quacks to move things along.

These attacks bring out reverberating overtones from Edwards in the bass' highest register, but when Butcher turns to shrill pitches that sound as if they're produced by the mouthpiece alone, Edwards starts to bang away at the bass strings. Thumps and bumps from the instrument, turn it into percussion, while Butcher twins a min foghorn then creates what appear to be ferocious lion snarls, reed kisses and mouthpiece buzzes. Pure release and depletion suggest themselves in equal measures at the end.

Flash forward to Bristol in 2001 and you find double-barreled Dunmall reunited with his Mujician playing partner Rogers. More of a light-fingered bassist than Edwards, Rogers' playing is also closer to his folk and jazz roots. Whether it's true or not, Bristol's Victoria Rooms sound a lot smaller than Berlin's Podewil, where the first CD was recorded; certainly the performance here is more claustrophobic.

This time Dunmall, especially at the beginning playing soprano, takes a lot more of the air, filling every sound hole with some phrase or another; Rogers functions more as an accompanist. As the saxophonist introduces circular breathing and English ballad motifs that lead him to echoing split tones and violin-like tones, the bassist turns to bowing in an elevated register to sound more than one string at a time.

Negating its appellation, the CD's title track features Dunmall back on bagpipes, but with such naturalness that any alien appearance is banished. Using the penny whistle-like chanter to approach jazz duet territory, his instrument's attachments allow him to hold notes even longer, creating natural overtones and multiphonics. Soon he's producing his own backing ostinato, conjuring up mythical highlands, as Rogers ranges up and down the face of the bass. Eventually, however, the bassist begins to bow some classical sounding themes, too reminiscent of the concert hall setting, before he accelerates into jazz movements.

With Dunmall back on sax, the two undertake a protracted call-and-response routine, with the saxophonist biting his reed more than his lip and Rogers' fingers able to suggest the string bass, a supple guitar and wooden body percussion.

Both CDs are worth investigation, with both recommended to those who can't get enough of Dunmall's inventive reed investigations. In terms of variety, though, three musicians at the height of their powers trump two.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Hit: 1. Gaulstones Rhymes: 2. Knotted 3. Plotted 4. Dotted 5. Spotted 6. Hit And Run

Personnel: Hit: Paul Dunmall (border and Northumberland bagpipes, soprano saxophone); John Butcher (soprano and tenor saxophones); John Edwards (bass)

Track Listing: Alien: 1. One Noise Away 2. Alien Art 3. Big Knows

Personnel: Alien: Paul Dunmall (bagpipes, soprano saxophone); Paul Rogers (bass)

November 12, 2001

PHILIP GIBBS/PAUL DUNMALL

Master Musicians of MU
Slam CD 241

Packaged and titled as it was some newly discovered field recording of hithertofore unknown Third World music, this CD is anything but. Granted there may be some unusual instruments on show along with some unexpected musical organization, but it's actually an improv session created by two players as British as Queen Elizabeth II.

Londoner Paul Dunmall is an exceptional reedman best known for his work as one-quarter of Mujician. Less-well known, Bristol-based Philip Gibbs is a guitarist who played with the likes of saxophonist Andy Sheppard in the 1980s, and a composer whose writing is influenced by gamelan music and the works of fellow composer Shapurji Sorabji. Recently, Gibbs' skills were displayed on two Dunmall CDs, the South Asian influenced MANJAH, and ONOSANTE, a more straightforward free session.

Nevertheless, as they prove once again on this thought-provoking disc, there's no quarrel with labeling the two master musicians. As for MU, it could stand for Musicians Union, of which both are fully paid up members.

Some might wonder how varied a reeds and strings duo could be. As exceptional as the talents involved, would be the response. Both men here work at varying time, tone, temperament and textures, helped not only by Dunmall's closet full of reed instruments, but also by the sound of Gibbs' electronic and acoustic guitars which at times resemble a sarod, a vina, a sitar and even a tabla.

If we were going to be ethnomusicological, perhaps the disc could be labeled a jugalbandi as duets are titled in North Indian classical music. But that's not quite right either, since the disc draws on jazz, improv and New music more than strictly "ethnic" sounds.

"Dweller on the Threshold", for instance, involves Dunmall's tenor saxophone and Gibbs' electric guitar. But the originality exhibited wouldn't cause anyone to confuse the track with the work of Sonny Rollins and Jim Hall or even Evan Parker and Derek Bailey. Basically, neither is the soloist, neither the accompanist. The guitarist's arpeggio chording is succeeded by bridge investigation as the saxophonist's ballad sound gradually morphs into a commodious dissonant tone that magnifies to such an extent that two simultaneous lines appear. Later, while Gibbs burrows away in the treble clef, Dunmall first turns to tongue fluttering than, eventually, to intense altissimo slurs.

"Vril" is performed on acoustic guitar and soprano saxophone. But again, despite the cliched instrumentation, no one will mistake it for smooth jazz. With Dunmall

limiting himself to the highest register of his instrument, Gibbs counters with some folksy strums up and down the fretboard which help prolong the drama. Although he's confined to the bridge, the guitarist is the melody man, while it's Dunmall who quacks, croaks and toots. Conversely "Call to Prayer" could be described as a quasi-raga, with the multi-tones of the double bamboo pipes approximating North Indian music, as Gibbs with nothing more than an acoustic guitar creates the drones of a tambura and the pulsations of a tabla.

Ethnomusicologically Dunmall often takes the border pipes and Cornemeuses way beyond the Celtic heartland. "Inside Out Man" finds him overblowing the pipes for unique tones and timbres, for instance, while on "Frenzy at the Delicatessen" the soprano Cornemeuse or bagpipe seems to migrate to the Maghreb with a distended tremolo. Hope the frenzy wasn't caused by mixing haggis with samosas, however.

For originality and musical distinction alone, Gibbs and Dunmall certainly justify the name under which the disc was recorded.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Tom O'Bedlam 2. Beyond the Black Stump 3. Ioanes 4. Call to Prayer 5. Inside Out Man 6. Dweller on the Threshold 7. Frenzy at the Delicatessen 8. Vril 9. So I must sharpen my sword-spike and then be off, nephew

Personnel: Paul Dunmall (soprano and tenor saxophones, tenor and soprano Cornemeuses, double bamboo pipe, border pipes); Philip Gibbs (electric and acoustic guitars)

August 20, 2001

PAUL DUNMALL

The Great Divide
Cuneiform Rune 142

PAUL DUNMALL
Solo Bagpipes II
DUNS Limited Edition 012

A heavyweight large ensemble work, THE GREAT DIVIDE allows British saxophonist Paul Dunmall to flex his writing, arranging and organizing muscles. Then for something completely different there's his solo bagpipes CD.

The orchestral session was created as a five-part suite featuring his long-standing octet, with a sixth blow out adding eight additional musicians. Cleaving midway between an ASCENSION-like, out-and-out free eruption and the more formal writing the saxophonist would have experienced in the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, the suite demands attention both for the strength of its soloists and its connective musical tissue.

Not that there would be any doubt about the solo strength, since included in the octet are the three others members of Mujician -- Dunmall's most consistent employer -- and BritImprov stalwarts like trombonist Paul Rutherford and tenor saxist Simon Picard. Guitarist John Adams from the saxophonist's working trio also adds his angular input to three parts of the suite and the final explosion, while familiar free improvisers like saxophonists Evan Parker and Elton Dean and drummer Mark Sanders fill out the big band.

Voiced the way progressive jazz arrangers such as Gil Evans approached similar-sized aggregations, Dunmall seems most concerned with balancing individual expression against large group dynamics. You realize this as you note that Adams' chording and main Mujician Keith Tippett's inside-the-piano mechanics can be clearly heard even within the orchestral passages. Another clue arises in "Part Three", when Paul Rogers' steady inventive sawing on his bass strings holds centrestage as the horn section gradually creeps up behind him.

These horn groupings become the leitmotifs holding the piece together, completing each section and cueing the next. Throughout the suite, different soloists step to the fore. They range from young trumpeter Gethin Liddington, whose tone is clear and almost classically "legitimate" -- though he does slip in a quote from "Stranger In Paradise" midway through -- to trombonist Hilary Jeffries on "Part Four". Double and triple tonguing, the bone master can call up the sound of mountain climbers shouting across the Alps or create horse whinnies with his plunger mute.

Occupied with advancing the beat, but never forcing it forward, veteran drummer

Tony Levin is most noticeable when his press rolls urge Picard from more restrained playing to stop time sheets of sound on "Part Two".

As for the leader, while a repeated piano ostinato and swelling orchestral harmony may presage the arrival of the tall, bearded sax slinger on "Part Five", he's certainly willing to meld his improvisations with others. Dazzling the locals with some hard swooping double timing, he's enough of a team player to let other posse members like Adams have their say. Finally he steps aside to allow Rutherford, assaying the role of an aging free jazz gunfighter that Richard Harris would play in the Western movie, to reprise some of the tricks that first made his reputation.

With nearly every one of the musicians simultaneously playing different lines that can be glimpsed through the cacophony of the final track, these 11 minutes serve as a fitting climax to all that came before. Mixing a sort of British reserve with a profusion of

orchestral crashing and burning, the massed musicians repeat crescendos and end on a high note.

A pulsating musical composition, not a university big band classroom exercise, the music adds lustre to Dunmall's stature as a composer. It's a sweet suite that deserves to be heard.

Far from the madding crowd, the other CD is aimed at much more specialized tastes. It showcases Dunmall's breath control and invention on an improv program performed on three different types of bagpipes. Instead of venturing into jazz bagpipe territory staked out by Philadelphia's Rufus Harley and others, however, he treats the chanter, drones and bellows the same as his other horns: as new sounds to manipulate. Thus the bag's natural overtones and continuum are extended with multiphonics, split tones and circular breathing.

On the jig-like "Loved ones", for instance, he manages to create a duet between two tones, one of which sounds like a penny whistle and the other deeper and darker. Whereas on "The day before freedom", there seem to be times when he's holding single notes almost indefinitely. Aylerian glossolalia appears on "A bag mistake", which despite its title is characterized by the appearance of a high-pitched, ocarina-style melody which is echoed and re-echoed by lower pitched chanter variations.

Then on the mammoth "The mountains love big pipes" -- more than 15 minutes of his tones bouncing off imaginary mountaintops -- Dunmall uses circular breathing to construct an assembly line of soprano saxophone-like notes, then contrasts them with a steadily shifting bass ostinato buzz. The end result is rather like one of those overpoweringly intense, late John Coltrane performances, which control rather than caress the ears.

That too is the caveat for this session. Saxophone reed honks and piercing clarinet glissandos are nothing compared to the bellicose, abrasive tones that can arise from the bagpipes. Deep listening is demanded here, but the uninitiated would probably prefer to do so in small doses.

-- Ken Waxman

Divide:

Track Listing: Divide: 1. The Great Divide Part One* 2. The Great Divide Part Two 3. The Great Divide Part Three 4. The Great Divide Part Four* 5. The Great Divide Part Five* 6 .A passage through The Great Divide*

Personnel: Gethin Liddington (trumpet); Hilary Jeffries, Paul Rutherford (trombones); Paul Dunmall, Simon Picard (tenor saxophones); Keith Tippett (piano); Paul Rogers (bass); Tony Levin (drums) [plus on track 6]: Jon Corbett (cornet); Oren Marshall (tuba); Lee Goodall, Elton Dean (alto saxophones); Evan Parker, Howard Cottle (tenor saxophones; John Adams (guitar*); Mark Sanders (drums)

Bagpipes:

Track Listing: 1. Infinity within a semitone 2. No food to eat 3. The day before freedom 4. Loved ones 5. Wild tiger mind 6. A bag mistake 7. The expanding universe 8. Snatch us from the terrors of fear and pain 8. The mountains love big pipes

Personnel: Paul Dunmall (Gaida, Northumberland, border bagpipes)

July 9, 2001

PAUL DUNMALL

Live At The Subtone
DUNS Limited Edition 002

PAUL DUNMALL Onosante DUNS Limited Edition 006

PAUL DUNMALL Manjah DUNS Limited Edition 007

Part of the so-called second generation of British improvisers, reedman Dunmall seems to have a stronger commitment to the jazz tradition than many others. That doesn't mean that he plays standards, but he's certainly in the lineage of intense sounds that owes more to saxophone visionaries like John Coltrane and Albert Ayler than contemporary European composers.

One-quarter of pianist Keith Tippett's freewheeling Mujician combo and, since 1987, a member of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, Dunmall, has started his own label to expose different facets of his work. At least from the evidence here, it's limited only in distribution, not musical imagination.

LIVE AT THE SUBTONE, where he limits himself to tenor saxophone, shows off his regular trio, which turned out two earlier CDs. ONOSANTE features two Mujicians -- Tippett, and Dunmall playing four different horns -- trading ideas with a guitarist and a drummer. MANJAH, with its vague South Asian mien, courtesy of M. Balachandar's mridangam, may reflect his long time interest in meditation.

The first CD was recorded in a club lively enough to have distracted conversation in the background, but with an audience interested enough in the proceedings that the musicians don't have to strain for effect -- unless they wish. Cast in the mold of the free jazz power trio, this aggregation is unique in that the guitar of John Adams is substituted for the usual double bass. The two long tracks don't suffer from this change, however, since the bottom -- when needed -- is successfully provided by part of Mark Sanders drum kit. Meanwhile, Adams has the space to intertwine filigree of grace notes around Dunmall's dark, rhapsodic tone.

Not that it's completely the saxophonist's show, although the disc commences with a long limbed tenor triumph with minimal, muted accompaniment. On "Part Two", for example, Adams gets an extended chance to strut his stuff. Gentle counterpoint, a hint of flamenco and even what sounds like a blindly speedy, offside version of mainstream picking is mixed into the concoction.

Sanders, sideman of choice for modern music mavens ranging from British saxophonist Evan Parker to German pianist Georg Graewe, gets a couple of solo spots as well. But using cymbals and other percussive modulation, he certainly doesn't wear out his welcome.

Dunmall paces himself as the featured player. Altissimo blast offs are only used when the spirit moves him, while his chesty, Coltranesque note choices manages to bring each improvisation safely home with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of invention.

ONOSANTE is another matter. For a start, Dunmall gets to trot out a soprano saxophone, fife and bagpipes as well as his tenor. Secondly, when Tippet isn't working the edges of the piano keyboard, he dives inside and "prepares" the strings with small vibrating objects that spin a web of between-the-keys tones. Again a guitar is used in what commonly would be the bass slot, although Philip Gibbs appears to be more concerned with pure sound than accompaniment. Finally, though forceful enough in the background, drummer Pete Fairclough seems even more self-effacing than Sanders.

Centrepiece of the session is "For Lost Souls", an exciting, almost 35 minute, multi-section free improvisation. Beginning and ending as if Coltrane's last quartet had taken up residence in a Bristol recording studio, these segments contrast Dunmall's harsh soprano and tenor saxophone licks with Tippet's purposely heavy handed rhythmic forays, which often sound like two pianos at once. Using circular breathing and insistent keyboard explorations, the two nearly obliterate any other sound, in strange contrast to the piece's leisurely, central lyrical passages. Slowly easing in and out of repose, almost before you know it, time suspends, Dunmall begins quietly piping away on soprano and Tippet's invigorating pounding gives way to studied keyboard note pecking. With the proceedings open to Gibbs' color field he introduces tiny, ascending guitar neck scratches. Fairclough then contributes cymbal slides and bell tinkles until following a fife reference, the keyboard and saxophone cavalry arrives and the piece turns dense and red hot again.

Other, shorter selections are a little more conventionally jazzy, and serve as an appetizer and desert to "For Lost Souls". Throughout, the musicianship is at the same high level and the bass fiddle not missed in the least.

Then there's MANJAH, which despite the South Asian percussion really has no authentic ethnic exotic overtones. That's because Balachandar uses the two-headed hand drum as a Siamese twin version of the conga and bongos.

Improvising on top of Eastern-inflected beats has been around since the days of Joe Harriott and John Mayer in the 1960s. It would seem that the trio members here merely look on this instrumentation as just another way of doing business

With Dunmall on soprano saxophone throughout and no trap set around, the resulting sound is lighter than that on the preceding disc, so Gibbs' contribution is more upfront. Unlike ONOSANTE, where he served as a color commentator, here he concentrates on the acoustic guitar, strumming unvarying string sounds that mesh perfectly with the drums' rhythms.

On "I Could Yak It" -- the longest track -- for instance, there are times when you may find it difficult to separate Gibbs' sound from the mridangam's beat, so well do they mesh. Instructively, the only real difference between most of the loose-limbed sax smears that Dunmall produces here and his soloing on the other sessions is the backing. Certainly the screeches he produces on "Yellow Paste" would be recognized more easily in New York than New Delhi. Other times, though, the end result is so airy that he could almost be playing the sort of flute featured in East Indian music: raga meets Revolutionary Ensemble.

Even the title tune, which is a solo showcase for Balachandar's drum, finger snapping and South Asian scat doesn't sound out of place. You may marvel how the percussionist gets so many tones out of his tiny percussion instrument, when rock drummers only produce a monotonous sameness from their giant set up.

All in all, each of these discs offers a complementary, but varied look at Dunmall's music. Each is absorbing in its own way. And one or all will probably attract most people interested in high calibre improv.

--Ken Waxman

Live: Track Listing: 1. Yelling For You 2. Yelling For You Part Two

Personnel: Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone); John Adams (guitar); Mark Sanders (drums)

Onosante: Track Listing: 1. Song and Dance and 2. For Lost Souls 3. Onosante 4. Manosante

Personnel: Paul Dunmall (soprano and tenor saxophone, fife, bagpipes); Keith Tippett (piano) Philip Gibbs (guitar); Pete Fairclough (drums)

Manjah: Track Listing: 1. Soonachudra 2. I Could Yak It 3. Manjah 4. Speaking About Others 5. Yellow Paste

Personnel: Paul Dunmall (soprano saxophone); Philip Gibbs (guitar); M. Balachandar (mridangam, voice)

April 29, 2001